The Kat's eye amulet
by Etherweil
Summary: Sequel to Dark Kats Revenge. An amulet with a mysterious Egyptian history is being sought by the Pastmaster. The Swat Kats, troubled by their personal dealings, have to rise to the challange. REVIEWS PLEASE!TONS AND TONS OF REVIEWS!
1. 1 month later

. The Kat's Eye Amulet

(Sequel to Dark Kats Revenge)

HEY THERE! I HAVE RETURNED! This is my sequel(as mentioned above) and im very excited about this one. I hope you guys like the first chap...if there are a few grammar and mechanical errors i apologize...im trying to upload this story 10 minutes before my 6th period so please be patient with me. And im just forewarning you guys that some of my chaps may be a month or so in coming...my homework load has been overwhelming and free time is scarace so if i dont update for a month or so please dont think that i've abandoned the story...i would never do that.:) Anyways...I hope you guys enjoy this chap and I hope i get reviews on it soon! Till the next update! Enjoy!Etherweil

The eve of Egypt's fall to the Romans…

The ginger glow of lit candles danced across the temples auburn stone walls as their tiny tongues of flame trembled in the room's thick atmosphere. Agonized screams pierced the night with abhorrent clashes of metal against metal and the bloodcurdling war cries of the warriors that swarmed within the palaces burning courtyards. The girl's raven black fur glistened as if wet in dark crimson shades as she sat still on her knees looking up imploringly at the glorious image of one of Egypt's most powerful gods, the lioness goddess Sekhmet. She prayed reverently for her divine mercy and deliverance as her body trembled with unspoken fear. Held tightly in her clasped paws was a startling amulet of mystical beauty. Gripped in the middle of its cold, glistening silver body was a flawless opal of the darkest shade of blue and violet that seemed to churn with an eternal abyss of cerulean mists that concealed its powerful internal fire. The precious gems that encrusted the amulets body seemed to loose their luminous luster in its presence. She breathed in the scent of frankincense that permeated the room's air deeply, trying to sooth her trembling body. She was going to carry out the honorary assignment that was given to her by the great priest himself …despite the fact that she was probably going to loose her life.

Further down the corridor, she heard the massive teak door slam open against the temples walls, and the cries of the Roman soldiers grew louder in velocity as the seconds passed. Taking one last glimpse at the frozen image of Sekhmet, she jumped to her feet and ran towards the hidden passage way that would take her under the temple and towards the Nile River. Her retreating shadow against the wall gave her away and the soldiers quickly pursued her down the inclining tunnel.

Ragged breaths tore from her throat as she ran out into the night. The abrupt change of the hard stone floor to the unsteady sandy shore of the Nile made her loose her balance and she fell hard onto her stomach, completely knocking the air from her lungs. The war cries of the approaching soldiers crashed down around her as she scrambled to her feet and ran unsteadily down towards the black water of the Nile. Arrows whizzed past her head and the heavy pounding of feet chased unnervingly close behind her. As her body crashed into the water a well aimed arrow found its mark and embedded itself in her back with a sickening thud. With a dying gasp as she fell into the river as several more arrows found their mark. Her limp body was carried away by the Nile's flowing waters as her lifeless paw let go of the amulet. Her glazed amber eyes watched unseeingly as the amulet descended towards its dark watery grave amidst flowing white veils of silk and snaking ribbons of scarlet. With a final flash of radiant prisms, it disappeared into the darkness of the Nile, its existence forever marred by the innocent blood that was shed for its legendary majesty.

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Present day …..

Calico Briggs stared out into the massive steel jungle of MegaKat City from her massive mahogany desk. Her high heel shoes lay discarded underneath her black leather chair as she sat, feet tucked underneath her body, relaxed in the chair's plush back. She cradled a cordless Panasonic on her shoulder as she listened to the excited voice on the other end. "Well, you always did have a knack for finding things." She smiled into the receiver as her finger traced circles into the desk's glossy, cherry surface.

"This amulet IS the most important discovery of my career yet! Oh, I can't wait till you see it Callie, it's so breathtaking, and it's unlike anything I've ever seen before." Dr. Abi Sinian, curator of the MegaKat Museum of History, exclaimed excitedly in one breath.

Callie laughed lightly. "I'm sure it is Abi."

Abi was silent for a moment. "Okay Callie, who is it?" demanded Abi teasingly.

"Who is who?" Callie asked innocently.

"The guy? Who's the guy?"

"What guy? I didn't mention any guy!"

Abi sighed in exasperation. "The guy that has you all day dreamy and stuff."

Callie laughed half-heartedly. "There is no guy, I can assure you."

"Liar." Abi bluntly accused.

"What?" Callie asked incredulously.

"You heard me! You are a liar! Or better yet, you're in denial that you've fallen for someone."

Callie sighed. Looking around her office as if afraid someone would over hear her whispered. "Is it that obvious?"

Abi laughed on the other end. "Yes. I haven't heard you this distracted and sad sense that real estate jerk dumped you like 8 months ago."

Callie closed her eyes. "PUUHLEEZ don't bring him up."

Abi laughed. "Okay okay sorry …so who's the guy?"

Callie groaned as she leaned farther back into her chair. "Your not going to give up are you?" Callie smiled as she heard Abi's stifled giggle. "Well, I can't really tell you who he is because I don't even know who he is …"

There was an uneasy silence that followed. Callie bit her bottom lip, waiting for Abi to answer. "Okay ….awkward."

Callie groaned as she put her bare feet on the floor and sat all the way down in her chair. "Okay so that didn't sound right…..I know him but I don't….do you even get a sense of what I'm saying?"

"Yeah ….sorta…..so what you're saying is that he is mysterious or something?"

"Yeah, he's mysterious…….and I haven't seen him ….well I have seen him but I haven't really talked to him in about a month."

Callie heard Abi click the roof of her mouth. "Does he even know you like him?"

"Yes." Callie replied immediately, but then started to doubt herself right after. "I'm just waiting for him to …you know …"

"Wow, really awkward for you…NOW TELL ME HIS NAME!" Abi exclaimed in playful exasperation.

Callie giggled at her friends dying curiosity. "Well, it's going to give you something to think over on your flight back here, and then maybe I'll tell you."

"You're cruel." Abi smiled.

"I know, I know." Callie sighed as she looked at the picture of Razor she had just pulled from the drawer.

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"HEEYYYYYYYAAAAAAACCCCHHHOOOOOOO!...UGH." Chance gingerly placed the wrench on the cars hood and reached for the tissue that was in his pocket. "Wut are duh oddz uf me dettin a told?" He moaned.

"Since you decided to tackle Viper without a face mask on." Jake reminded him as he walked into the garage with a clipboard in one paw and a cup of water and some pills in the other.

Downt start wid me." Chance sniffed as he took the pills and water from Jake. Chance downed the pills in one big gulp of water. "Huow ded he det out of Alkatraz enyways?"

Jake shrugged. "This is Dr.Viper we're talking about; he probably found a sewer pipe or something of that nature."

Chance shuddered. "Tat is so distusting."

"Anyways, on to a more pleasant topic…I've finished '_Shadow'_." Jake informed his friend in a monotone voice as he handed the clipboard that contained some Enforcer oriented paperwork over to Chance's reluctant greasy paw. Chance grudgingly began to sign his part of the paperwork. "Wut was wrong with the old cyclotron?"

Jake shrugged. "I just had an epiphany of a better design." He replied matter-of-factly. Chance shook his head as he walked over to their crude wooden desk and set the clipboard down. Jake, had been for the past month, distracted and remote, as if his previous energetic intellect was in an endless mode of compelling and die-hard drive … as if it was trying to escape the troubling issues that he knew, deep down, had to be sorted out and fixed. And number one on that stockpiled list was Calico Briggs. Chance knew he was going to have to bring her up soon, since Jake hadn't brought her up since that day she had passionately kissed his alias, Razor.

"I want ta go look at this '_Shadow'_ bike of yours." Chance smiled as he wiped his paws off on a clean shop rag.

Jake smiled at Chance's cold dialect as he led the way to the hanger.

With a sharp click, the hanger lights blared to life, reducing the absolute darkness into sly shadows that lurked upon the concrete walls. Chance's eyes immediately fell upon Jake's new creation, 'Shadow' as it was aptly named. Its sleek metal and fiberglass body of glossy black streaked with slivers of chrome seemed to crouch eagerly forward on its front tire. Its tinted windshield slanted sharply over the control panel and handlebars, completely shielding the drivers head and upper back from the wind that it was designed to cut through. Chance's jaw unconsciously dropped in awe as he walked slowly up to the creation of Jake's ingenuity. "So …what do you think?" Jake asked as he walked up slowly behind his friend.

"Holy Kats." Chance murmured as he circled 'Shadow'. He shook his head as a smile emerged from his startled face. "Jake ….It's amazing!"

Jake shrugged modestly. "You know that engine prototype I've been working on for the past year?"

"Yeah." Chance mumbled distractedly as his hand glided over _Shadow's_ leather seat.

"It's the engine that's in there…I think I've finally perfected it."

Chance looked up at Jake in astonishment. He knew that all the late nights Jake had been putting in for the past month weren't for nothing, but the fact that he had accomplished almost 6 months worth of work in a 3 week period amazed him.  
"So, when this thing runs…." Chance began,

"You barely hear it purring." Jake smiled as he completed his friends thought. Jake reached over and started _Shadow's _engine. With barely a whisper it came to life, its headlights like glowing yellow eyes piercing the dark like a scarcely breathing predator, its metal body barely vibrating with suppressed strength and power.

Chance looked up at Jake with a playful grin on his face. "So…when's mine doing to be done?"

"It's on the drawing board as we speak." Jake replied seriously as he turned of the purring _Shadow._

"Hey, there is no rush buddy, I don't want you ta kill over at the ripe age of 26."

Jake laughed. "I'm in no rush Chance."

A moments silence passed between the two of them. Chance studied Jake's faraway expression, an expression that seemed to occupy his face more than he liked. As he shuffled his right foot on the concrete floor, Chance cleared his throat and crossed his arms over his chest.

"So, have you talked to Callie yet?" He inquired, trying to keep the tone of his voice as casual as possible.

Jake looked up abruptly from the floor at the mention of Callie's name. "Why would I have talked to her?" he asked, trying pathetically to act like he didn't know what Chance was talking about.

Chance sighed in exasperation. They were going to get this settled once and for all. It had carried on for too long.

"Don't play stupid with me Jake." Chance warned, trying to be patient. Jake's eyes narrowed as he looked at his friend. "I don't need to talk to her. I'm just going to forget about the whole thing."

"You just can't forget something like that."

"Yes I can!" Jake snarled, making Chance look at him in disbelief.

Jake turned sharply and walked over to his locker, frustration evident in every part of his body. Chance stood there, watching Jake, worried. Jake had never snapped at him like that…if ever to anyone. Jake had pulled on his Swat Kat suit and started to tie the black bandana to his head.

"Do you like her Jake?" Chance whispered…..hardly loud enough that Jake could hardly hear him. But Chance didn't have to repeat himself. Jake transformed into Razor as he placed his helmet on his head.

He looked up slowly at Chance, pain evident in his amber eyes. "She doesn't like Jake, Chance, she likes Razor, and Razor cannot give her what she needs. Jake is just a pathetic, washed up enforcer who has nothing to offer, and Razor, well, Razor is just a character that exists only in times of trouble and distress. That is no life for Callie. To put it simply ….she deserves better."

An uneasy silence fell upon the two tomcats. Razor walked up to '_Shadow' _turned on its whispering engines.

"Where are you going?" Chance asked quietly, finally breaking the stiff atmosphere. Razor mounted onto _'Shadow'_ and without even a glimpse back at his friend gave the stiff reply. "Out." And without any further words, Razor guided the new cyclotron out of the hanger into the dark tunnel, instantly melting into the darkness like a silhouette of something that seemed to never exist, leaving Razor's icy words hanging in the air and echoing loudly in Chance's now guilty conscious.

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Abi carefully placed her precious discovery into its hard leather carrier box. Securing its lid by tightening its straps she then placed the smaller case into a larger box filled with shredded paper. "Did you put enough confetti in the box?" her colleague teased as she watched Abi gently place the packed amulet in the middle of the stuffed box.

"I just don't want it to get damaged; you can't trust the airlines anymore with your possessions." Abi smiled as she covered the leather container with paper shreds.

"If the airplane crashed I doubt that thing would get scratched." Her friend laughed, as she helped secure the wooden crate by hammering its top shut. Abi gasped in mock indignation. "Perish the thought." Once the two archeologists were satisfied with the amulets packing, they left the cargo hold of the plane. As the sound of their footsteps grew distant, an airport employee shut the cargo bay doors.

The bay's atmosphere grew thick with a loud silence, not even the sound of the plane's engine's could drown out the unnerving sound. The wooden crate seemed to dominate the rest of the cargo of the bay with its imperative presence. The bay became dark as the main lights were turned off, casting shadows of erect lines against the aluminum hull. Inside its protective nest, the amulet's opal eye began to glow an icy cerulean, making its leather casing grow warm with its powerful heat. The luminous stone's core slowly came to life, after centuries of an inert slumber. Its glossy surface began to churn like a restless sea of shimmering mists. Ghostly voices of a time long past seemed to surround the crate with hushed whispers and poignant chants, and it increased in velocity with each passing second. Shards of a blinding golden light suddenly broke through the crates cracks in a silent burst, and with the same suddenness, it materialized into the air and the cargo hold returned to its dim environment, and the silence drowned out the planes vibrating engines with a deafening pulsating drone that made the animals in their cages whimper and howl.


	2. Chapter 2

HEY GUYS!

Well, here is chap 2! If some of you didnt see my authors note I had posted earlier i just had an excuse of why its taken so long for me to update. To make a long story short, I lost my jumpdrive that had chap 2 and 3 along with several of my english essays saved on it, somewhere between my englishclass to my locker,and I didnt have them saved on my school account or my personal computer so shame on me... I've learned my lesson. Thank you for your patience...i'll try to update more often...I just wrote this today so if it has some mechanical errors i apologize. Chap 3 is in the pre-write stage so that wont be long in coming. Until chap 3...Enjoy!

Etherweil

Author's Note: Chap 2 occurs on the same day/night that chap 1 begins with. There are some time lapses...:)

That same night….

The street was black and glistening from the raindrops that were falling heavily upon the city. The bright neon lights made the rain cast radiant slivers of rainbow as the raindrops shattered against the pavement. The streets of downtown MegaKat city were bustling with the lively night life, from the poorest and lowest of kats up to the die-hard gamblers that swarmed to one casino to another. With the commotion of laughter, music, and the cheerful ringing of kats getting jackpots from the numerous slot machines, no one noticed the dark shadow that zipped passed the crowded streets and weave between cars and pass them without even a whisper.

_Shadow's_ liquid black body glistened with violet hues as the rain caressed its sleek metal body. Like an invisible hand, the bike's swift momentum pushed thin veils of water back into the air as wispy multihued ribbons in its sharp, slender wake. Razor's heart raced as his newest creation cut through the wet air with effortless ease.

Caught within that moment of exhilaration, he commanded _Shadow_ to go faster with a sharp twist of his gloved paw, making the metal beast underneath him to leap forward with a powerful burst of speed. Quick and sleek, kat and machine zipped past the bright neon lights and cars as if they were standing still. He sped past them all not caring or willing to stop to admire the beauty that surrounded him, instead his bright amber eyes focused straight ahead, his destination the vertex of the vibrant tunnel of swirling color and undistinguishable sounds.

Steadily gaining speed, he rushed past it all, trying to leave behind his churning emotions in the night's chaos. It all seemed to blend together perfectly as the lights dimmed and the number of cars began to decrease as he neared the sleeping part of the city. To feel nothing at all would be a blessing in itself, but the haunting memory of Callie's kiss wasn't that merciful.

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12:00 pm

Felina Feral drove down the lonely highway 180, a road rarely traveled due to the new freeway just a couple of miles east. Sure it was rough and covered with speratic black lines of tar but its desolate emptiness appealed to her, especially on dark rainy nights like this one. Her car's yellow headlights sliced through the damp darkness as it moved along the old cement with a low growl of its old engine, leaving a wake of sweet exhaust in silver clouds pierced with the falling rain. The darkness once again enveloped the highway with its dark cloak, like a sleek predator lurking up behind its prey in silent malice.

She drove on as her thoughts wandered through the landscape of her consciousness, muscle memory taking over the wheel as her car traveled over the well-worn road. She thought about the surprising events of the day that had passed….such as the transfer of David Steele to a 'more fitting' headquarters somewhere in the West in a little town called Pigeon Creek. The worst of these 'unfortunate incidents' that were of Steele's doing, was the one that involved a blazing fire and her uncles beloved car. As she relived the hilarious moment of Feral dragging Steele out the door by his feet, her car started to lug and lurch sluggishly. Alarmed, she snapped back to reality and looked down at her lit console, which showed every gauge needle trembling in the red zone, all except her gas gauge.

'Ohhhh noooonooonononnnonononoono! Don't do this to me!" She growled as she pulled her sputtering car over the side of road where it abruptly shuttered and died with a resound 'thump' before she could even put it in park and turn off the ignition.

After a few seconds of sitting there, her head slowly came to rest upon the steering wheel, while her paws slide from it and dangled lifelessly by her legs. And then, with a violent pull of the hood release she threw open her door and stalked over to the front of her car in the pouring rain. Grumbling incoherent yet profane threats she pulled her gloves on and pushed the hood open, releasing a thick putrid cloud of gray smoke that leaked profusely from her blackened engine. Coughing violently she stumbled back, waving her arms in front of her face.

Fuming, she stomped back to the open driver door and slammed her foot into it, making the poor gray Saab to jolt with the metal crunching impact. Breathing heavily, she glared at the perfect imprint of her boot that now graced the side of her car. Slowly, she trudged over and leaned her back against it and closed her eyes. Her head gradually rolled onto the top of her hood, allowing the rain to wash her face with its pure cold drops. She opened her eyes only to see the angry storm clouds churning in charcoal gray masses. "IS THIS PUNISHMENT FOR REVOKING THAT OLD LADIES LICENSE AND IMPOUNDING HER CAR BECAUSE SHE COULDN'T AFFORD INSURANCE!" She screamed at the rumbling sky. "JUST STRIKE ME WITH LIGHTNING AND GET IT OVER WITH!" She continued to look at the sky after her outburst as if expecting the clouds to part and reveal the starry heavens in some glorious sign, but the only sign she got was an angry roll of thunder. Sighing in defeat, her drenched head fell to her chest, her dark wet hair clinging to her face. She reached into her pocket and pulled out her cell phone, and dialed a number she had long ago memorized but never dialed. Putting it to her ear she waited nervously, hoping he would answer but then again wishing he wouldn't.

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At that exact moment….

Chance's paw slowly passed over the sleek curves of the jet with a wide spray of glistening black paint for the last time. Sighing, he put the paint gun down on the tool bench and took off his face mask. Just as he was sitting on the bench his face twisted up in annoyance and then he let out a loud sneeze that echoed throughout the hanger. "Owww…" he moaned as he pulled his tissue from his pocket and blew his nose.

He tossed the wadded up Kleenex into a nearby garbage bin and then held his throbbing head in his paws. After a few seconds, he looked over at the clock that hung on the wall, it was 12:30. Chance closed his eyes as he collapsed against the back of the bench. Jake still wasn't home……and he was getting worried. And then, the phone rang, making Chance jump in alarm. His watery green eyes slitted as he glared at the blaring phone sitting on Jake's work table. After four rings, he slowly got up and stalked over to the phone.

Grabbing it with a clenched paw he stabbed the 'On' button. "Megakat Towing & Salvage, Chance speaking." He answered dryly as he sat down on the table top. Nothing but silence answered him. He sighed wearily as he waited a few seconds. "Hello? Anybody there?" he called faintly. He then heard someone clear their throat nervously. "Uh, hi Furlong, this is Lieutenant Feral." Felina heard a muffled 'thud' accompanied with a faint "Crap!" on the other line.

"Is everything okay?" she asked, now feeling really awkward.

"No, no everything's fine….how can I help you." Chance smiled through gritted teeth as she tenderly picked himself off the concrete floor.

He heard her laugh shortly, as if she couldn't believe she was actually talking to him. "Ummm, I'm kind of in a situation that calls for……..well, a tow truck."

"A tow truck?" Chance repeated. "Did your car break down?" Once again he heard her clear her throat. "Yes." She sighed.

"Do you know what's wrong with it?"

"I'm not really a mechanic but if it means anything there's a lot of smoke coming from underneath the hood."

Chance sighed. Another junker on their 'to fix' list. Grabbing a pad of paper and pencil he asked "Where are you?"

"I'm right after the mile 80 marker, about 3 miles from Beach Side cutoff."

"Okay, I'll be there in a few minutes.'

"Thanks Furlong, I appreciate it."

"No problem."

He hung up the phone, grabbed the pad of paper and climbed up the ladder back into the house.

After grabbing the truck keys and his coat he left a note for Jake on the kitchen table, locked up the house and garage and got into his truck. The truck roared to life seconds later, and pulled out of the junk yard onto the highway, only 15 minutes away from where Felina stood in the rain.

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Many miles from Megakat City stood the ancient St. Michael's Cathedral, a mere worn and tainted shell of a time long forgotten. Its wretched gothic pillars shrouded in ivy sheltered the rotting teak doors from the menacing weather. The crumbling steps and its dark interior were littered with pieces of shattered stained glass. The arched windows that once depicted holy scenes of legend where now nothing more but leaden skeletons that crudely outlined weather worn saints and knights of the crusades.

The vast vaulted ceilings depicted fading scenes of angels and saints flying in mid heaven, forever imprisoning in their darkened crevices the ghostly hymns of the long deceased choir. The peeling mural of fallen grace was golden in the soft candlelight that burned upon bullion candlesticks set upon the covered furnishings. The room was spicy with the aroma of incense and in the middle of the vast choir room a large cast iron pot sat upon white hot coals that scorched the marble floor black.

The boiling contents were of liquid silver, and standing over the pot on a tall pedestal stood the remains of a short kat. His coarse orange fur clung tightly to his bones, giving him the appearance of a living skeleton with sunken black eyes. His royal purple cloak fell in cascades over the podium steps as he muttered ancient and dark hymns, making the hoary liquid to churn violently. His voice grew louder in velocity as he chanted words long forgotten and as if spurned by the powerful hymns, a funnel of the silvery liquid erupted from the pot and shot into the air with a fiery explosion in its wake.

The tiny sorcerer cackled as the funnel reached the painted ceiling and engulfed it as it met its flaking surface. In a matter of seconds, the liquid had engulfed the every inch of the ceiling and was slowly flowing down the walls and onto the cracked marble floor. The whole cathedral from the inside lay enclosed by the shimmery liquid like substance within seconds.

Mad laughter echoed throughout the desolate cathedral as a piercing light erupted, sending the shards of glass back into their original windows, pieced together immediately by an invisible force and restored back to their original glory. The eruption of light illuminated the surrounding forest with rich color and dazzling white and then, just as suddenly as it had erupted, with a thunderous 'whoosh' the silver liquid rushed back to its pot and grew silent and still as its bright wake slowly dimmed.

The room glistened in polished mahogany and teak decorated in priceless gems and ornaments of gold and silver. The sorcerer looked around him, his beady black eyes glistening imperiously at his wondrous accomplishment.

As he was stepping down from his podium, the massive teak doors swung up, emitting a figure fully clothed in flowing garments of black. The figure seemed to float upon a thin lay of air as it stealthily approached the smaller kat, who wasn't alarmed at all by this dark figures sudden presence.

The cloaked figure, his face hidden by the draping hood that caused shadows to cover his face, kneeled submissively before the skeletal kat, his head bowed. "Pastmaster, everything you have requested of me has been accomplished."

The Pastmaster's skeletal grin stretched over his gaunt face. "Very good young Pagane, it won't be long until I shall send thee to retrieve the queen."


	3. Chapter 3

HEY THERE! Thanx for the review JV, im glad you've enjoyed my work...ill try to make the following chaps more frequent. This chapter isnt as long as i had planned or wanted it to be so I apologize for that...i just wanted to update soon so I wouldnt loose the interest of my readers...chapter 4 is in the process of being written and I promise it will be posted some time this month. I hope to hear from you guys soon! ENJOY!

Etherweil

The gray Saab sat on the curb just as Felina said it would be. Chance slowly pulled up in front of the car and then backed up towards it so the back of his towtruck was only about 3 feet away from the Saab's front bumper. Felina slowly emerged from inside her car back out into the pouring rain just as Chance walked up to the Saab's open hood. Felina folded her arms and held them close to her as she watched Chance examine the burnt engine with his flashlight.

Chance let out a low whistle as he looked up at her. "Wow." He breathed as he shook his head. "I tell you what, WOW!"

Felina smiled faintly "I know, it's pretty sad." She walked over to him and stood beside him as he further examined the engine. "Is it fixable?"

Chance couldn't help but laugh. "Uh, if you consider replacing the entire engine as fixing it, yeah it's fixable, but I wouldn't waste my money. You'd be better off getting a new car."

Felina nodded her head. "Now why did I see that coming?"

Chance still had a smile on his face as he shut the hood, but when he looked over at Felina, he could see that she was freezing in her drenched clothes. "You're not going to get any warmer by standing out here, the trucks nice and warm." He remarked.

Felina shook her head vigorously. "No that's okay; I was going to help you load up the car." Chance shook his head as he pulled off his heavy Carrhart jacket. "I think I can manage, besides, I don't want your uncle to kill me when your in the hospital with pneumonia." He smiled as he placed his warm jacket around her shivering shoulders.

Felina was about to protest but Chance led her directly to the passenger door of the tow truck, opened it and pushed her gently inside. "It'll only take me a sec." he reassured her as he shut the door.

Sighing, he shrugged off Chance's jacket to peel off her sodden coat. After placing it on the floor by her feet, she pulled Chance's jacket back on and nestled comfortably into the seat, allowing the warmth to relax her damp, cold body. Felina watched Chance work in the side view mirror with half open eyes. She wasn't even aware that she had drifted off for a short time, only to be awakened when Chance got into his seat and shut his door. "Do you want me to drop you off at your place?" he asked her as he pulled off his leather work gloves. Felina sat up straight, trying to chase away the weariness that threatened to take over her exhausted body. "You don't have to; I can call a taxi when we get to your shop."

"I really wouldn't mind." He assured her.

Felina smiled " Well, in that case, I would appreciate it."

Chance shifted the truck into drive. "Okay, where to?"

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4:00 A.M Tuesday Salvage Yard.

Jake gently shut the hangar door and pulled the rug back over it. Sighing wearily, he stood up and looked around the dark living room while listening to the steady rhythm of the rain on the metal roof. _Another night's sleep gone_ his conscious scolded him as he slowly walked over towards the stairs. He carefully shifted his weight on every step, trying to prevent the tired wood from creaking. He quietly passed Chance's room and stepped into his own. His alarm clock sat on his nightstand, waiting to sound off its annoying call in precisely two hours.

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8:00 pm Tuesday Special Presentation at MegaKat Museum of History

"….I am pleased to present to you the Kat's Eye Amulet!" Abi announced joyiously asshepulled off the scarlet cloth, revealing the awe-inspiring amulet in its thick glass case surrounded by lustrous folds of midnight blue velvet. Camera flashes exploded across the case's glossy surface as boisterous applause greeted its presence.

Soothing melodies of the jazz band drifted amidst the light cheery air of the party. The museum's crystal chandeliers were brilliantly lit and the glossy marble floor reflected the gilded ceiling as would a still pond reflect the gleaming heavens.

Callie's gown of shimmering white graced her surroundings and captured the attention of every tom kat present. Long golden curls cascaded down her bare shoulders and back freely, adding further to her beauty. In her right paw, she held a delicate glass of bubbling champagne that she had barely sipped, while standing alongside Mayor Manx. He droned on about hisfavorite past time, golf to an equally dull group of his peers. She had a sparkling smile plastered on her face as she took another restrained sip of her champagne.

Just then, Abi appeared next to her with a sly grin on her face. "There is someone I want you to meet." She cooed in Callie's ear quickly. "Mayor Manx, I was hoping you'd let me steal Ms. Briggs for a couple of moments."

"Ah, yes, you may Dr. Sinian, I want her back though." Manx chuckled as he nodded towards Callie.

"I assure you she will return." Abi smiled as she grabbed hold of Callie's arm and led her off.

"I'm not sure whether I should thank you from saving me from the 'ecstasy to golf' speech." Callie mused as she let Abi guide her through the throngs of people.

"Oh you'll be thanking me my dear." Abi smiled as she led her hesitant friend up to a group of sharp dressed officers. Callie's eyes grew wide but it was too late to voice her protest, for Abi had now joined the officer's group.

"Lieutenant Cummings, I would like you to meet Deputy Mayor Calico Briggs."

Now standing in front of Callie was a tall, fiendishly handsome tomkat. Callie couldhelp but smile as he young lieutenant tenderly kissed her hand. "At last we meet Ms. Briggs. Abi has told me all about you." He smiled, his blue eyes twinkling radiantly.

Callie fought the sudden rush of warmth from shooting to her face. " Really? Well, I hope it was all good?"

The lieutenant chuckled, his blue eyes twinkling. "Yes, I assure you, it was all good."

"Well, in that case, it's a pleasure to meet you Lieutenant." Callie smiled.

" Now, I don't want to appear too assertive, but would you like to dance? It would be a shame to waste such marvelous music." Cummings gestured over to the jazz band with a raidiant grin on his face.

Callie was speechless. Looking over at Abi completely dazed, her friend mouthed 'YES'. "I would love to." Callie replied, trying to maintain her usual air.

Callie let the blonde haired, blue eyed lieutenant lead her out to the dance floor, and for the first time in countless months, Razor wasn't on her mind.

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Two days later……

The radio played faintly in the background as Jake and Chance worked on their clients broken down cars. For the past day or so, they hadn't really said much to each other; even though they were both well aware there was much that needed to be said. Jake couldn't help but reminisce over what he had said to Chance that night he had lost his temper. He couldn't stand the uneasy silence that hung in the air, making it seemingly thick and suffocating. "Chance, I'm s……" Jake was interrupted as Callie's car pulled into view.

Callie stepped out of her green sedan dressed in tennis, jeans and a MKCU (MegaKat City University) sweatshirt with her hair pulled back into a ponytail. It was evidently one of her rare days off. And then, rather unexpectedly, her passenger door opened, revealing newly transferred Lieutenant Paul Cummings dressed in his casual clothes.

Chance quickly looked over at Jake worriedly, only to see Jake don a calm, blithe expression, but his fiery amber eyes gave away his true emotions.

"Hey guys!" Callie called cheerfully as she walked up to them, with Paul following close behind her.

"Hey." Chance smiled as he cleaned his hands off on a rag "What's going on?"

"Oh, Its my day off and Felina asked me to bring down her payment from the tow the other night, she wouldn't be able to bring it to you guys until tomorrow and she didn't want you to wait that long."

"Tell her we weren't worried about it." Chance replied as he took the check from Callie.

"Oh, I wanted to introduce someone to you guys. Paul, this is Chance Furlong and Jake Clawson, some very good friends of mine, Chance, Jake, this is Lieutenant Paul Cummings, he's taken over Steele's position."

"Heh, bout time someone replaced him. Nice to meet ya lieutenant." Chance grinned as he shook Paul's paw.

Paul looked at Chance and then at Jake with a smile on his face. "It's a pleasure to meet you guys.I dont want to be blunt butI was wondering if you two werethe pilots that ran into the enforcer building a couple years back?"

"Yes, Why?" Jake snapped, his eyes flashing ocher with irritation

Paul shrugged, " I was just curious. You guys are still a well discussed topic at headquarters. Heard you guys were pretty good in your day."

"In our day?" Chance mused as he looked over at Jake, as if contemplating whether that was meant as an insult or if it mere tactlessness.

Paul laughed uncomfortably. "Whoa, I'm sorry that came out wrong. I meant to say that you guys were the best in Feral's squadron before the accident and there are many of your records that are just waiting to be broke."

"Yeah I guess we were. All records are made to be broken." Jake folded his arms across his chest and looked at Paul then at Callie. Before another word was spoken the phone rang, shattering the uneasy silence. "Excuse me." Jake dismissed himself briskly, then disappeared into the garage's office.

Chance looked back at Paul and a clearly uncomfortable Callie. "Sorry bout that, he's uh…had a rough week."

"Oh, well we'd better go then, I hope everything goes okay for you guys today." Callie smiled, trying to lighten up the moody atmosphere.

"Oh yeah, don't worry about it." Chance replied jauntily.

"Well, tell Jake I said bye. See you later." Callie called over her shoulder as she and Paul walked back to her car holding paws.

Chance smile slowly melted off his face as he watched the green sedan drive off. "Oh my God." He moaned through clenched teeth. It was going to be another one of those days.


	4. Chapter 4

Hey Guys! I'm back! Sorry for the delay of this Chapter...but I did update this month as I promised. LOL life is CRAZY! This chapter was kindof hard to write...with all of the action and all but hey, its fun all the while. Chapter might be a month or so in coming...just to warn ya cuz I have a 12 page MLA documentation to write for English that due Jan 3 and I only have 2 pages done so I'd better put that as #1 on my priority list so forgive me! I know what Chap 5 is going to be like so it wont take me as long to write as this chap did. I hope you like it...and that it was worth the wait. Till i update...have a nice winter break! ENJOY:) OH THANX FOR THE REVIEWS!

Etherweil

Chapter 4

1 week later……

5:00 pm Wednesday

Feral rubbed his temples wearily as he stared at the newly submitted missing kats reports. "A couple of hikers have been reported missing for 3 days." Felina informed him as she sat down across from her uncle. Feral reached over and picked up the files and slowly scanned through them. They were high school students…seniors. He shook his head as he put them back on his desk. "Last seen at Hidden Lake huh?" he mused in a drowsy tone as he looked at looked over at his niece under dark bushy eyebrows.

"Yes. At the base campground at the foot of the Katmai's, one of the parents dropped them off for their annual hiking trip." Felina informed, leaning back in her chair comfortably.

"Hmm. Don't tell me, the parents let them go by themselves because they've had survival training and all that stuff." Feral frowned, voicing the all too obvious. Felina just nodded…..there was no need for her to speak.

"And they didn't file a missing persons report until they didn't show up 2 days after their scheduled return?"

Felina nodded again.

Feral sighed. "To think parents would learn from other parent's mistakes. I want Phillips assigned to looking for any records of any residents in that area, tell him to make the calls necessary, to do whatever he needs to do. I'll have a helicopter sweep the area and a small search and rescue team. Hopefully these kids know better than to start a fire in the middle of the forest during the driest season of the year or we'll have no trouble finding them."

Felina smiled as she stood to attention. "Yes sir."

7:00 pm that same day…..

"Okay, better yet, how about we ambush him at his house around…let's say…around 12…when its all nice and dark…then we disconnect his phone and lights, shut down all the electricity….then we break in, sneak up to his room….and then we strangle him, pulverize him, put him in a container, burn him to ashes, put kerosene on his ashes and burn his ashes again, or better yet, a couple more times, and then we put his ashes into a decomposing container with rocks in it and throw it into the inlet……then the fish will eat his ashes and no trace of him will ever be found and it would appear as if his house burned because of a fateful electric fire and it would be the landlords fault…..its brilliant brilliant brilliant I tell you, genius I say! Muuuaaahhhaaaaahhaaaaa!" Jake rubbed his paws together gleefully as he glowered at the tattered picture of Lieutenant Paul Cummings hanging on the wall, riveted with perfectly aimed darts.

Chance stared at his clearly crazed friend blankly. He slowly opened his mouth "Iiiiieeeeee……ummmmmm." A moments silence passed between the two. Chance sat up in his chair and leaned forward, his elbows resting on his knees. "Jake, wouldn't that qualify as premeditated murder?"

Jake looked at Chance. "Yeah so?"

Chance laughed uncomfortably. "Wouldn't that contradict what we fight for as the Swat Kats?"

Another moment of silence passed. "Hmmmmm your right, to save time and energy, we should just blow up his car when he's driving down the road and just say that we mistakened him for the Metalikats."

Chance sighed as he let his head fall into his paws. "I give up." He grumbled.

Jake stood up, grabbed another dart and walked back a ways. "You're no fun." He teased as he threw the dart which embedded itself dead center in-between Cumming's eyes.

Chance looked at Cummings barely recognizable head shot and shook his head, smiling. "You're jealous."

Jake looked over at Chance sharply, "I am not. No. Not really."

"Not really?" Chance teased, his emerald eyes twinkling knowingly.

"Hey, I know it appears that I'm being driven by this mad, raw, green, whatever you want to describe it as, jealousy, but I assure you, in the long run I'm would really be doing her a gigantic favor by wiping his smug, pretty boy face from the face of the earth because he would make her life miserable!SNAP" Jake looked down at the broken dart that lay twisted in his trembling paws. Laughing to himself quietly, he threw the two pieces into the garbage can nearby. "Besides, I don't trust him."

Chance walked up beside his friend. "Yeah you don't trust him, because he isn't you! Just admit you love her Jake and get it over with."

Jake sighed wearily. "What's the use, I mean, compare him to me. And if I told her that I….well…..you know…it would give our identities away sooner or later."

Chance patted his friend on the back. "Yeah, but…you never know…she just might come around."

Jake looked at Chance with a you've-got-to-be-kidding-me expression vividly sketched onto his face. "I guess what your trying to say is no fire and ashes huh."

"Yeah." Chance replied quickly.

"Darnit."

"Well, since your in such a splendid mood, why don't we do a little practice run, instead of having Dark Kat and Feral as the target we can put Cummings…WITH Feral up also."

Jake scowl transformed slowly into Razor's mischievous smirk. Without a word he raced off towards his locker. "Last one to the course smells worse than creepling breathe!"

Meanwhile, at MegaKat Museum of History……

"Wow, this is place is really creepy after closing hours." Callie mused, looking up at the stark, rigid skeletons of a long extinct species poised, frozen in mid-flight. Abi laughed "Nah. Don't be such a barbie Callie." Callie folded her arms across her chest, her lips pressed together in a mocking pout. "I am not."

Abi shook her head as she gathered the rest of her papers from her desk. "To think you practically run our city…..scary." Callie smiled, rolling her eyes. "You're so funny Ms. Historian." Abi tucked her portfolio under her arm, adjusted her bag properly on her shoulder, and raised her chin in a dignified manner. "Thank you."

Callie followed her friend out of her office, and into the even darker lobby. She couldn't help but feel a little chill go down her spine as she watched the sinister silhouettes from the ancient and long dead exhibits creep silently across the walls and lurk in the shadowy hallways. "Have you ever gotten a little….you know……spooked being in here all by yourself at night?" She asked, her voice almost a whisper as she looked up at the class domes that permitted the milky rays of the moon to descend upon the museums marble floor.

Abi shrugged. "It does get a little eerie sometimes, especially after what happened with the Pastmaster a year or so back, but it helps to remember that there is nothing living in here besides me and the guard."

Callie nodded as her blue eyes regarded her surroundings curiously. As her gaze fell upon the gilded tombs of Egyptian pharaohs, a somewhat darker shadow with a more sinister presence caught her eye. She stopped; the icy chill of fear seizing her spine as the shadows 'unique' character came into sight. It was a color seemingly darker that black, a robed figure floating, its weightless inky fabric scarcely skimming the polished marble floor.

"Abi." Callie breathed urgently, her eyes still transfixed on the ghostly figure. Abi, sensing that something was wrong, turned back towards Callie questioningly, her eyes instantly falling upon the sinister figure that was now floating slowly out into the pale moonlight. Neither could speak as the figure seemed to drift in the middle of the room where it was cast in the pale moonlight, further enhancing its foreboding presence.

Slowly, it turned its covered head, revealing its ominous red eyes that glowed like fiery hot coals in the black void that served as its face. Callie's heart pounding in her chest violently as the hooded figure seemed to stare through her, and the whole room seemed to cave in around her at the deafening throb of her blood that rushed through her head. With her eyes locked with those of the wraithlike intruder, her paw slowly reached into the inside of her purse and gripped her triangle communicator. Before she could push the button, a subtle wind began to swirl around Callie and Abi, carrying upon its invisible body the sharp spice of frankincense and myrrh, along with eerie hymns sung in a language long forgotten. As the breeze rapidly turned into a biting wind Callie pushed the button in startled nervousness.

Abi's papers flew from her grasp and flew around her in a frenzied hurricane of white as the intruder, its robes not even disturbed in the howling wind, started to move towards the case holding the museum most prized possession, the Kat's Eyes Amulet that sat its display case near the Egyptian artifacts. Abi watched horrified, through breaks of white as the cloaked figure placed a ghostly paw against the display's glass. "DON'T YOU TOUCH THAT AMULET!" Abi screamed furiously over the wind. The figure shot its red eyes back towards her in menacing slits. In a sudden shift of the wind, the papers flew at Abi, cutting her on her exposed skin. Abi immediately shielded her face with her paws as she dropped to her knees.

"STOP IT!" Callie screamed, her anger dominating her fear. Without even thinking she grabbed a priceless vase and pushed her way through the encircling wall of wind that tore her hair from her clip and disheveled her dress suit. A jagged whole was now on the side of the display case, and before the intruders bloodless paw could grab the sparkling amulet, well aimed pottery crashed into the figures head. Callie stood a few feet away from the intruder, aghast that the vase didn't seem to deter it. The colorless paw clasped around the amulet, and slowly pulled it out through the melting opening. The figure slowly turned around and faced Callie, its red eyes staring down at the amulet in victory.

But then, those malicious red eyes turned their gaze to Callie, the figures heavy breathing wisping the edges of his hood back and forth. The amulet started to hum as an icy blue hue surrounded its cerulean opal, and in a silent burst of light it seemed to combust into a white flame that licked the paw of its holder. "That's not good." Callie groaned to herself as the figure raised the amulet in front of him, aiming its blazing stone directly at her.

Everything seemed to freeze in time as the glass domes ahead shattered into luminous shards of silver as they descended, illuminated by the moonlight, showering down to the stone floor. A sticky blob of cement struck the figures paw, sending the amulet skidding across the polished floor, its ethereal power immediately extinguished by the sudden blow. T-Bone and Razor landed in front of Callie and Abi in a crouch, their glovatrixes aimed at the dark figure that had been sent reeling back from Razor's shot. The wind died down in the lobby, a thick silence settled in instantly, interrupted only by the curving sheets of paper that descended, twisting and gliding to the floor in a ring of white encircling Abi.

"What's this, the grim reaper?" T-Bone whispered to Razor, who was regarding their enemy with slitted eyes. "Whatever it is, it's not friendly." Razor growled, his ears laying flat against his helmet as the creature slowly raised its hands towards the ceiling. "Get the amulet!" Abi hissed urgently, her head gesturing over to the spot where it lay glittering in the faint light. The strong aroma of incense permeated the air around them as a low steady hum started to vibrate the thick air, making the objects in the room quake and rattle in their set places. The cloaked figure raised its eyes towards the heavens, and a boisterous command in the ancient language echoed piercingly, further intensifying the atmosphere. And then, as if a giant vacuum had been turned off, the room grew quiet and still.

T-Bone looked back at Callie and Abi to see if they were alright, while Razor held the dark intruders glare. Razor's gaze shifted quickly over to the amulet that lay enticingly close, and then he looked up at the old wooden sarcophagus that was laid up against the wall protected by a thin cover of glass. A bitter taste came to his mouth as he watched the lid of the coffin open noiselessly. "Oh my God." He heard Callie breath nervously beside him. Quickly, he looked over at the other sarcophaguses, whose lids were also slowly opening. Simultaneously, menacing shrieks erupted from the stark skeletons of the various ancient flying monsters that were hanging from the ceiling. An evil laugh came from the cloaked intruder as the dead became the living. Ropes snapped as the flying creatures struggled against the feeble restraints along with the shattering of glass as mummies smashed out of their displays. Without a second thought, Razor leaped for the amulet. The hooded figure snarled viciously as it sprang at Razor, its paw also outstretched to grab the amulet. For a brief second, Razor held it in his paws, but a powerful blast of wind sent him flying into a display case of jewelry. In a swift movement, he raised the amulet towards the struggling winged dinosaurs in a shaking paw. The amulet regained its previous power as soon as the figures paw had touched it; it once again burst into white flame, shooting forth from its center a powerful ray of blue froth that swirled over the skeletal bodies. Ignoring his injuries, Razor leaped up from the shattered display case as a resurrected pterodactyl in full body launched itself towards him. "GET UNDER THE COUNTER!" Razor yelled to the girls as he landed on his back and fired a steel net at the enraged winged creature.

T-Bone shot one in the wing with a mini missile. "Go! I'll cover you!" he motioned Callie and Abi towards the main counter. The girls sped towards it, the deafening sound of shattering glass and wood echoing throughout the lobby. Callie, right before she could follow Abi into the main counter, felt talons tear into her suit jacket. "Not again!" Callie shrieked as she struggled helplessly as a pterodactyl picked her up.

Razor looked up at Callie's scream and jumped over the fallen wooden hutch that lay in front of him. With pinpoint accuracy, Razor shot the pterodactyl's wing, making the creature screech in pain as it loosened it grip on Callie. With a startled yelp, Callie plummeted toward the ground. She closed her eyes, expecting to hit the ground when she felt someone catch her, softening her fall. She opened her eyes, and smiled as she found herself lying directly on top of Razor, her nose touching his. "Thanks." She whispered. Razor suddenly pushed her off him and shot the mummy that had snuck up in front of them into smithereens. (LOL, I've wanted to use that word for the longest time. :)

"No problem." He smiled as he helped a bewildered Callie to her feet. He looked over at T-Bone who was blasting a seeming endless supply of mummies like there was no tomorrow. "Get under there with Dr. Sinian." He directed sternly as he steered her quickly over to the counter. Callie, somewhat exasperated, let Razor lead her over to the counter, and then watched as Razor ran over to help T-Bone.

"Where are they all coming from?" T-Bone growled as he sent the head of a mummy smashing into the wall from a forceful punch. Razor sent another pterodactyl crashing to the ground. "I have no idea." He grunted as he took aim on an advancing mummy.

Abi and Callie peered over the counter top, watching the Swat Kats fight off the determined foe. Abi suddenly nudged Callie sharply in the ribs. "If we could get that amulet away from that sorcerer guy, the mummies and pterodactyls will probably stop." She whispered as she motioned over to where the robed figure stood, watching the Swat Kats fight off his minions. "Okay." Callie whispered. "Let's go now." Quietly, they snuck out of the main counter and hid themselves in dark shadows alongside the walls. They snuck up upon the distracted sorcerer, and before Callie could change her mind, she launched herself at the robed figures back. She was in fact, startled to find that their cloaked enemy was indeed mortal as he struggled to get her off his back. "Grab it!" Callie shrieked angrily, holding on viciously to the figures neck and torso. Abi snatched it from his rigid paw and ran off, towards Razor and T-Bone.

Infuriated, the figure threw Callie over his head and yelled a command that sent the remaining few pterodactyls after the fleeing historian. Razor quickly cut the wings off of the flying dinosaurs, allowing Abi to get into in-between the two Swat Kats safely. "I got it!" she smiled triumphantly, despite the situation they were in.

"YOU FOOLS! YOU REALLY THINK YOU CAN STOP ME?" the sorcerer thundered as he grabbed Callie by the neck and lifted her up off the ground, her feet dangling helplessly. Callie shot her right paw at his hood before he could react and tore the hood from his face. The figure screamed in rage as he threw Callie from him, his face a blinding light that made them shield their eyes. A powerful wind sprang up from no where and raged around them, and as suddenly as it had sprang up it deceased into a ringing silence…..the black sorcerer was gone.

Slowly, they opened their eyes and looked at the spot where their foe had been seconds before. "Wow." T-Bone whistled, looking at the strewn mummies and scattered pterodactyl skeletons that littered the floor. As papers drifted to the ground, a thunderous crash accompanied the last standing antique hutch as it splintered against the floor. Abi winced as she took in the damage around her. "Oh my God." She moaned as the reality of it all sunk in. With the amulet clenched in her paws, she fell to her knees. "Oh my God!" she screamed. Razor looked over at T-Bone, worried. "Looks like Ferals here." He remarked placidly as he saw the flashing lights reflecting in the windows by the main entrance. With a thunderous bang, the main doors collapsed onto the floor and the enforcers swarmed in, guns raised. "OHHHHHHHHHHHHHH, those were teak doors from Egypt!" Abi wailed, after a tense moment. Callie groaned as Feral strode in over the doors, his face expressionless as he looked around at the devastated lobby. He took it all in, every little splintered, shattered piece firmly fixed in his memory. As his eyes rested upon his two arch rivals and they grew dark with rage. "YOU!" he seethed. "YOU….YOU……LOOK AT ALL THIS! THIS IS A DISASTER! IT LOOKS LIKE A HURRICANE HIT HERE!"

T-Bone laughed. "Believe it or not, we have a perfectly good explanation for all of this…but I doubt you want to hear it."

"Shut up Swat Kat, I don't want to hear it!" Feral growled.

T-Bone looked over at Callie. "See? You can't get anywhere with this guy."

"They saved our lives Commander, Dr. Sinian's and mine. And they were not the ones who…..destroyed the lobby." Callie spat back, trying to maintain her dignity despite her disheveled appearance.

Feral folded his thick arms across his chest, a careless smirk etched across his face. "Really Ms. Briggs? Don't tell me, they rescued you from the mummies and dinosaur skeletons that were attacking you." He gestured to the flaky remains and splintered white bones that lay all around them.

T-Bone raised his paw. "As a matter of fact…"

"Shut up Swat Kat, I wasn't talking to you!"

"Yes, Feral they were. This sorcerer got in here somehow and was trying to steal the Kat's Eye Amulet. He brought the mummies and pterodactyls to life using this amulet." Abi answered for Callie as she stood up and brushed herself off. "I don't know how I'm going to explain this to the board." Abi sniffed.

Feral let out a short bark of laughter. "You're trying to tell me that a sorcerer went through all the trouble to bring back all of these….things just to steal a necklace?"

"The Kat's Eye Amulet is an amulet of legend Commander, it's spoken with reverence by the Egyptian people just like the book of the dead and the book of the living are. It is said to have powers of the gods." Abi informed him indignantly, squeezing the amulet tighter in her paws.

Feral shook his head. "I can't believe you believe in all of that hocus pocus Dr. Sinian."

"Well, I do. And if it wasn't for the Swat Kat's we'd probably be dead right about now because it takes an act of God himself to get your assistance during, not after, a time of crisis."

T-Bone stifled a laugh, making Feral shoot an icy glare at him.

"And you're the one, Commander that blasted down my doors when you could of just as easily opened them!" Abi cried, pointing at the doors that lay on the floor, their hinges torn savagely from their sides.

"Pity." T-Bone remarked.

"Indeed." Feral shot back.

"We should go now." Razor interrupted. "We don't want anymore unpleasant confrontations." Callie looked back at Razor, hesitation vivid in her eyes as she looked into Razors. Razor broke eye contact as he down briefly. "Dr. Sinian, Feral…..Ms. Briggs." he nodded respectfully before turning to follow his friend.

Callie looked down, blinking, and then looked back up at Abi as she let out a weary sigh, smiling weakly. Feral sniffed in disdain as soon as he heard the TurboKat thunder overhead. "I'll have Felina escort you to your house Ms. Briggs." Feral informed her as he motioned for Felina to come forward from where she had been watching.

"Thank you Commander." Callie replied half-heartedly. She turned to Abi, "So, what are you going to do with the amulet?" Abi looked down at it. "Put it in a safer place. We certainly don't want that sorcerer to get a hold of it." Abi sighed as she looked around her once again. "Then I'd better get a cleaning crew in here and get what things I can restore."

Callie nodded. "I'll call you later then. Goodnight." She followed Felina out the door to a patrol car.

Feral walked off, yelling out orders as he went, leaving Abi alone with the amulet. She shivered in the subtle breeze that whispered in through the opening. "I'm starting to wish that I never found this." She murmured to herself as the amulet sparkled luminously in the moonlight.


	5. Chapter 5

Hey there! Here's Chapter 5, hope you guys enjoy it! I've tried to apply all the pointers you've left for me in the reviews so here it goes! Chapter 6 is halfway done so that one will be updated asap:) TTYL when chap 6 is posted! Till then!

Etherweil

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The evening after the museum incident…..

9:30 p.m

"I don't think I'll ever look at a mummy the same way again." Chance grumbled, as he switched the channel from the Egypt special that was being showed on the discovery channel.

Jake laughed as he poured a glass of milk for the both of them

"Oh and why don't we have NORMAL bad guys in this city? We always get the ghosts, giant bugs, dinosaurs, mutants, the living dead, robots, psychotic freaks from the asylum, geeks……geez, I could go on." Chance rambled as he channel surfed.

Jake rolled his eyes as he sat down on the couch, placing Chances glass of milk on the coffee table in front of them. "Would it astound you if I said that I don't know?" he asked, teasing sarcasm evident in his mockingly serious tone.

"Yes it would." Chance teased back, throwing a pillow at his friend.

Jake ducked, but the milk managed to splash on his Carrhartt's as the pillow hit his glass. "Hey! I want to drink my milk, not wash my pants with it."

"It's not my fault you're a slob." Chance sniffed as he put the channel on HBO where Jurassic Park was being played.

"Ohhhh… this is fitting." Jake mused as he settled in on the couch.

"I hate dinosaurs." Chance growled, as he watched the T-Rex bite into the top of an explorer.

Jake shrugged. "You shouldn't, you and that T-Rex have a lot in common."

Chance looked over at Jake suspiciously. "Like what."

Jake smiled to himself as he finished off his milk. With a nonchalant shrug, he looked over at Chance. "You both have the same atrocious table manners." He snickered as he nodded over at the TV, where the T-Rex had car parts hanging from his mouth.

Jake threw himself to the floor as a larger pillow flew over his head and hit a lamp that went crashing to the floor.

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"Thank you for tonight Paul, I had a wonderful time." Callie smiled as she let Paul lead her out of the movie theater.

"I'm glad I was able to brighten your evening Callie." Paul grinned down at her.

Callie smiled and looked ahead as they walked down the sidewalk. They walked a ways in silence before Paul slipped his paw into hers. "If you wouldn't mind, I would like to take you on a walk through the central park….its beautiful this time of night. It'll help you sort through all of that confusion I know is bothering you." Paul consoled her, pulling her closer to him and putting his arm around her shoulders.

Callie looked up at Paul, a bashful smile playing with her lips. "I'd like that."

The trees were painted with leaves of crimson, gold, and russet, and they glistened with dew as the bright city lights illuminated the darkness of the night. The bitter autumn breeze rustled the trees teasingly, sending the detached leaves into a silent blizzard of rich color as they cascaded onto the beaten path that stretched out before the couple that made their way through the silent park. Callie looked into the pond of reflective obsidian, its tiny waves lapping the shore of rich earth. "I've never walked in the park at night before." Callie sighed, breathing in the crisp air of the seasonal wind.

"Never?" Paul inquired, looking down at the tired blonde nestled against him.

Callie looked up at him dreamily. "Never."

Paul looked back up. "Well, now you have."

They walked on until the reached they shadowy forest that took up several acres of the cities park. "Should we be heading back?" Callie yawned, "It's getting late."

"I want to show you one more thing, and then we'll head back, I promise." Paul promised as he tightened his hold on Callie, who didn't seem to mind.

They walked on through the naked birch trees on the gravel path, their crunching footsteps echoing through the dense forest. Paul led her over an old stone bridge that crossed a deep creek that wound its way like a glistening black road that eventually emptied out into the sea.

As more time passed, Callie began to feel uneasy, for the city was about 2 miles away on either side….they were in the heart of the woods. "Paul, we should really…." She began to say, but Paul cut her off abruptly,

"What? You don't trust me my dear?" he smiled, dropping his arm from her shoulders.

Callie stopped and looked at Paul in confusion. "What? Of course I trust you Paul. It's just that it's late and we should be heading back, I have to work tomorrow."

Paul stood with his back to her. "I sorry to say this Callie, but your not going to make it to work tomorrow."

Callie felt a cold lump appear in her throat. "Excuse me?"

Paul turned back to her, his face expressionless. "You heard me."

Callie tried to control her breathing as she started to walk backwards, towards the way they had come.

Paul laughed, shaking his head as he looked up at the clearing of tree tops that allowed him to see the sky. "Master told me that it might be difficult to lure you here…he told me that you have a hard time trusting people, especially tomkats."

"What?" Callie breathed, her voice shaking noticeably in fear.

Paul didn't seem to notice that she had spoken. "But do not fear, for I shall not harm you…the key must be presented before the master alive so the door may be unlocked." As he spoke, his appearance became blurry as a sheer veil of light covered him, and he vanished slowly into air until he was no longer there.

Callie cursed herself mentally for allowing this to happen as she looked about her for Paul. The hairs prickled on the back of her neck as she suddenly felt hot breath against her neck. She whirled around to find the black robed sorcerer from the night before.

"I was supposed to take you last night along with the amulet, but your….friends….prevented me from doing so." The figure spoke as it approached Callie slowly. Its white paws raised up and pulled back its hood, revealing a face that resembled Paul except for the snowy white fur and glittering pink eyes. Callie gasped as she stumbled back away from him. She turned and darted into the dark dense woods. She crashed through the thick, rigid branches that raked her skin, with Paul's ghostly laughter echoing about her on the bitter wind.

"You think you can run from me Callie?" Paul chuckled as he materialized directly in front of her. Callie skidded to a stop and darted off to the side. As she stumbled through the forest, she frantically felt around in her purse. Her communicator finally fell into her grasp, and without a second thought she pressed the button and held it up close to her face.

A menacing chuckle followed unnervingly close behind her, making her look over her shoulder to see a gray cloud of mist snake its way through the trees and branches at an amazing speed. As it drew closer to her, it materialized into Paul's hooded form. Callie pushed herself faster through the woods as she held a vice like grip onto the communicator, hoping that the Swat Kats would answer quickly.

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Chance winced, bringing the popcorn bowl closer to him, as he watched the T-Rex on the screen finish off a hapless kat on the screen. "That is so disturbing." He mumbled, as he ate more popcorn, his emerald eyes staring at the screen.

Jake laughed, looking over at Chance with an amused expression. Just then, the alarm went off. In a matter of seconds, they were gone, leaving the TV on with the popcorn littering the floor as the bowl rolled along the living room floor.

Chance slid down the ladder and raced over to the speaker, answering it. "Yes Ms. Briggs, what's the problem?"

As Jake raced up behind his partner, they heard frantic breathing. "Guys, I'm in serious trouble." Callie barely managed to say as she ran through the woods. "I was so stupid; I let him take me to the park woods."

Jake and Chance looked at each other in alarm. "Who Ms. Briggs?" Jake demanded, his voice full of anxious alarm.

"I know who the sorcerer is." Callie scarcely breathed, "Its P…..ahhhhhhh."

A resounding thud completed Callie's sentence, followed by a deafening static.

"Callie!" they both screamed. They quickly threw on their flight suits and donned their bandanas and helmets. T-Bone fired up the TurboKat as Razor firmly fixed his glovatrix to his paw, his face grim and angered.

They thundered out of the hanger and into the clear night sky. "I have her positioned fixed at mile 2.8 east of the parks forest." Razor informed.

"Got it." T-Bone growled as he guided the TurboKat towards Razor's ordered destination.

It seemed like an eternity for the both of them to get there, but they finally touched down in the woods central clearing. They both leaped out of the TurboKat into a fighting stance, glovatrixes raised and ready.

"Do you have her communicator tracked?" T-Bone asked, as he scanned the woods about them.

"She's a mile due east of here. " Razor directed, "Keep your eyes peeled." They both ran off into the woods, Razor leading the way.

The red dot indicating the last reported spot of Callie's communicator blinked faster and faster as they approached it. "It's over this rock." Razor reported, as a large gray rock emerged between the dark trees. They leaped over it and landed crouched, glovatrixes still raised. The small clearing was deserted.

"Crud." T-Bone cursed as kicked the ground. "We're too late."

Razor, breathing heavily, looked around him. At the bottom of the gray boulder, he saw a dripping black streak that stained its surface. His throat tightened as he kneeled down to inspect it. He placed a finger to the still wet substance and pulled it back. His fur was now matted with a sticky crimson matter…..it was blood.

He looked down at his feet, which was at the base of the boulder and saw the shattered remains of her communicator. His slitted eyes of ocher flames looked back up at the streak of blood.

He didn't even acknowledge T-Bone kneeling beside him. His paws were now clenched and shaking in suppressed fury.

"We'll get her back and pummel the guy who did this to her." T-Bone seethed as he stood up abruptly.

"It was that sorcerer." Razor growled, his tone that of icy malice. He placed his hand upon the boulder and slowly stood up, his burning eyes still transfixed on the same spot. "Let's get back to the jet, there's a lot to do."

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Felina stirred uncomfortably in her bed. She cracked her eyes open towards her window, only to see the bloodless full moon that stared at her from its low dwelling in the sky. She sighed and closed her eyes again, practically feeling the moon's beams covering her with their unearthly glow. The wind wisped in through the small opening of her bedroom window, disturbing her long white drapes that fluttered in the breeze gracefully in delicate folds.

She felt an abrupt cold fall upon her as she laid there. Stirring further down into her blankets she slowly opened her eyes, her heart immediately freezing with terror with what greeted her. Instead of a clear view of the moon, a dark shadow loomed over her with glowing jade eyes.

"Heeeellllllmmmmmmmpppphhhhhhh." She tried to scream, but a huge hand covered her mouth, muffling her cry. She struggled viciously against the shadowed intruder. He pushed her head fully into her pillow and restrained her by forcing her arms over her head.

"Ssssssshhhhhhhhhhhhh! Don't scream, it's me, T-Bone." The figure consoled her, his voice warm and soothing.

Felina slowly controlled her ragged breathing and thumping heart as T-Bone slowly removed his paw from her mouth.

"Kat's Alive! What are you doing here?" she hissed as she sat up in bed, pulling her comforter up to her scantly clothed chest. Razor switched on her lamp.

"Callie's been katnapped." He informed her bluntly, his arms folded across his chest.

"What?" Felina hissed incredulously, staring at the both of them in disbelief.

"Do you know who she was with this evening?" T-Bone asked her, stepping back beside Razor.

"Uhhhh, she was with Lieutenant Paul Cummings." She stuttered, as she dragged her comforter from her bed and wrapped it around her.

"Before she was cut off, she said that she let HIM take her into the park woods, and that she knew who that sorcerer guy was from the museum." Razor informed her, his voice still icy in tone.

"You think Lt. Cummings katnapped her?" she inquired as she walked into her walk-in closet, halfway shutting the door.

"Yes." T-Bone answered bluntly.

Felina emerged from her closet with an enforcer sweatshirt on with a pair of worn jeans. "When did this happen?" she growled as she sat on her bed and pulled on her socks.

"Not even 20 minutes ago." Razor answered angrily. "We couldn't even reach her in time."

Felina quickly tied her sneakers and stood up. "Well, let's not waste time; we should go get my uncle now." She ordered as she grabbed her blaster and its holder that she snapped on her waist.

"We'll take you in the TurboKat." T-Bone offered as he opened the window. Felina stood in front of the window, with her hands on her hips as she watched Razor zip up towards the roof as his grappler pulled him up.

T-Bone offered her his paw as soon as his grappler was ledged firmly on the roof. Felina took a hold of his paw and held on to his neck. "I can't believe you're so willing to get my Uncle involved." She mumbled in T-Bone's ear as they were pulled up towards the roof.

Within seconds, they reached the roof, and Razor helped her up from the ledge. "This isn't a time to let rivalry to get in the way." T-Bone growled as he jumped up into the cockpit and fired up the TurboKat. Felina was in shock, she'd never seen T-Bone or Razor so dead serious before.

"There's something you're not telling me." She demanded, as she joined Razor in his seat. They shot off into the air before the canopy could even shut.

"We found her blood splattered on a boulder in the park." Razor choked as he massaged the pressure point in-between his eyes.

Felina sat back against Razor's shoulder in shock. "Was there anything else." She managed to speak after a moment of uneasy silence. Wordlessly, T-Bone handed back Callie's ripped red scarf that was covered in big stains of crimson.

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Feral quickly unlocked his office and turned on his light, with Felina and the Swat Kats following immediately behind.

"I don't believe this!" he seethed as he grabbed his phone, and dialed for the sergeant on duty. "I want every available patrol car, chopper and officer out to sweep the city for Lt. Paul Cummings now! He is armed and extremely dangerous; he has in his custody Deputy Mayor Calico Briggs who is presumably injured; proceed with all caution. I want this to be accomplished in no less than a few minutes sergeant; I'll be down shortly to join in the search, so have my chopper ready." He slammed the phone down on its receiver, and leaned heavily upon his desk with his hugs paws. He looked up at the T-Bone and Razor expectantly. "You'll be joining to search I take it?" he presumed

"Yes." Razor answered firmly.

Feral nodded in acceptance. "I thought so. What area will you be searching?"  
"Whatever area that you need covered." Razor informed him.

Feral pulled out a map from a desk drawer and spread it out on his desk. "Here's the plan…"

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26 hours after Callie's abduction………..

10:30 p.m Enforcer Headquarters.

A young lieutenant walked in to Feral's office and saluted. "Sir, the Swat Kats and Lt. Feral are here for their report."

Feral rubbed his blood shot eyes. "Send them in."

A clearly tired, yet stubborn Razor, T-Bone, and Felina walked in. "Find anything?" Feral growled as he stood up from his desk.

"No Uncle, we scanned over our designated areas several times but there was no sign of her or Cummings."

Feral's growl grew deep and menacing as he rubbed his head wearily. "Oh this is just brilliant. Over 26 hours have passed since her abduction and we haven't even got a ransom."

Felina sat down in one of the office chairs while Razor wandered over to Feral's huge office window while T-Bone leaned against the back of the other office chair.

"Well, we know for sure that Cumming's isn't planning on returning to his residence due to the fact that his house is completely deprived of his belongings." Felina mused as she tried to work over the few facts they had, trying to make a connection that would lead to a bigger clue.

"It was undoubtly premeditated." T-Bone added, staring unfocused at the floor. No one spoke for a couple of seemingly lengthened minutes as they were all lost in their individual thoughts.

Razor continued to stare out of the window at the city night life with unseeing eyes as his mind tirelessly played over the events of the last 24 hours. Everything around him grew blurry and distant as he drifted farther back far into his unconsciousness. Scenes of the forest flashed across his sight, and the last desperate words Callie had spoken to them echoed hauntingly in his mind. Then the memory of their encounter at the museum came into play like a silent black and white movie. The sorcerer…the amulet…..Callie……. his rich amber eyes grew wide with sudden realization. "The amulet……" he mused loudly, making Feral, Felina and T-Bone to look over at him in surprise.

"What about it?" Feral asked, curious to what Razor was talking about.

Razor looked over at them sharply. "The sorcerer was after the amulet that night and tried to capture Ms. Briggs with one of the pterodactyls. Dr. Sinian said that that amulet has incomprehensible powers that would grant it wielder the powers of the Egyptian gods. Callie, before she was cut off, said she knew who the sorcerer was. The sorcerer could very well be Cummings. And if we find out what the history is behind the amulet…"

"It might help us figure out what Cummings would want with Callie and the amulet together." Felina finished his thought, smiling.

T-Bone stood up straight, stretching out his back, "I'm surprised that didn't come to us sooner."

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MegaKat Museum of History.

"Aha! Here it is." Abi announced as she pulled out an ancient book from a shelf. She brought it over to the desk and blew off its dusty cover, revealing worn images of gold paint, silver and leather of prehistoric hieroglyphics written long ago before the pharaohs.

T-Bone and Razor along with Feral and Felina gathered around Abi as she carefully opened the book, revealing tainted, time worn pages filled with the elaborate yet, little known hieroglyphics.

"From what I have been able to decipher, this book describes the beginning of time, when the gods came into existence and where given their various appointments and powers. To make a long story short, each god, it its own right, possessed a power greater than the other and so an embittered suspicion of each other provoked wars and unrest. It is said that a young, yet wise kat was elected by all of the tribes to represent their plea for unity and peace. This young kat approached the gods with respect and humility. He shrewdly addressed the pleas of katkind to the gods and listened to their angered reputes they conducted among themselves. Acknowledging this ancient problem, he advised that a covenant should be made among them, and amazingly, the gods complied. As a result, a pure stone of flawless beauty from the earth was chosen to conceal small yet powerful portions of power from each god, which allowed a harmonious balance between the gods and their peoples. Thus, the powerful nation of Egypt was born. As time passed, the high priest of the temple was anointed with the safekeeping of the amulet, for if it fell into the wrong hands the gods would be awoken from their slumber and their embittered hatred for one another renewed, which would result….."

"…In the destruction of the world as we know it?" T-Bone finished, as he looked at Abi quizzically.

"Why yes, how did you know?" Abi inquired, as she flipped through the books pages.

T-Bone shrugged. "I didn't, but that always seems to be the case."

"But not just any normal kat could resurface these powers unless they knew the language of the gods." Razor commented, looking from the amulet that lay on the table back over to the open book.

"Yes, that's right, no trace at all has been found of the language…the Egyptians viewed the language as sacred and saw speaking it as an unforgivable sin. If it was spoken by anyone not appointed by the gods themselves, they would be placed in an eternal Egyptian predestination."

"Is that where a spirit cannot enter into 'heaven' or into 'hell', they just kind of float about on the earth?" Felina asked, trying to remember if her memory on the beliefs of the different world religions were correct.

"Yes, exactly, they wouldn't enter into the afterlife; they would be a cursed spirit for all of eternity."

"Now that sorcerer was able to command the amulet, so all of those spells he was yelling out was spoken in that forbidden language of the gods?" T-Bone queried, still trying to make some sense of it all.

"Yes, they were." Abi answered worriedly.

"But how would anyone from this century learn to speak this language if no trace of it has been found." Felina wondered out loud.

Razor shook his head as he looked again at the amulet. "He had help, that's how. He had help from the Pastmaster."

"How can you be sure it's the Pastmaster?" Felina asked, looking from Razor, to Abi.

"He's the only guy we know that is crooked enough to do something like this, let alone able to speak this language. He could have traveled back into time and learned the language of the gods himself and then could have taught his accomplice." Razor explained.

"But why would they trouble katnapping Callie if all they needed was the amulet?" Feral spoke up.

"Maybe because old Pastie is going to try to get her to marry him again or maybe he's using her for leverage to get the amulet, who knows?" T-Bone reasoned.

Abi flipped through the book eagerly, as if she were looking for something. "I think the answer for Callie's abduction might be here, Aha! Here it is."

Abi placed the book once again on the table and pointed out a passage that was decorated with curious images of a huge gate that seemed to shut out the swirling celestial bodies of the universe that were decorated with sapphire blue ink and silver stars and spirals. "It is said here that the amulet can open the gates of the universe, or other words, grant the wieldier of the amulet with the power of the gods, with an additional sacrifice or key."

All five of them looked at each other in alarm as everything fell into place.

"Callie's the key." Razor barely managed to breathe.


	6. Chapter 6

Hey! Here it is...CHAPTER 6! duh duh duh duuuuuuuunnnnnnnn! LOL im sorry this chap has taken so long. I've been assigned sososososso many creative writing projects in English its been insane! Right now i have to write and illustrate a 30 page 5th grader book so chap 7 may be a couple of weeks or so (figures huh?) anyways sorry...I'll try to get that done...Peri of the Elves (yes u know who u r) has been on my back constantly about my...slowness...so you can thank her for getting my butt in gear. Originally, i wanted to make this chapter longer but i wanted to give u guys something since its been almost a month since i've updated...I have the layout of chapter 7, all i need to do is write it out so hang on in there...this story will be finished properly i promise.

Thanx everybody for your patience!

Etherweil

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Chapter 6

Callie moaned as she slowly became conscious; her head throbbing nauseously as feeling painfully returned to her body. She managed to pull her eyelids apart from the substance that had sealed them shut, with revealed a darkened room that was glowing with innumerable flickering candles. A huge mirror of rich mahogany stood on carved legs in the center of the room, its reflective surface a flawless hoary pool that made you believe that it would erupt into small ripples if you touched it. A huge pot sat over fiery coals farther across the room, its contents bubbling delightfully.

Clarity was slow in coming as Callie closed her eyes, trying to stifle the shattered thoughts that were scattered and racing across her mind. '_I have a concussion.'_ She managed to tell herself as she leaned back against the stone wall behind her. _'I can't fall asleep.'_Her arms were chained up above her head in biting irons, so she found it difficult to get comfortable. She licked her dry lips, and a bitter iron taste filled her mouth. That's why her face felt so strange. It was encrusted with dried blood.

The room before her turned slowly in circles with tiny dots of white and black dancing in front of her eyes teasingly. She fought a sudden wave of nausea and exhaustion with her remaining strength, but failed as the black dots grew in size and slowly enveloped the room around her. Her chin slowly fell to her chest as her eyes flickered shut; her body gratefully welcomed the numbing cold that was brought with the darkness.

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4:00 a.m the roof of MegaKat Museum of History.

"I insist that you take me with you!" Abi demanded to Feral as she stormed up onto the roof after them.

"I do not want to put a civilian in harm's way, Dr. Sinian." Feral growled stubbornly, turning to face Abi.

"You guys don't even know where to look! And which one of you can read a dead language, not to mention prehistoric hieroglyphics." She argued, placing her paws on her hips.

"She has a point Commander." Razor reasoned, looking from Abi to an irritated Feral.

Feral growled as he got into his chopper. "Fine, but don't say I didn't warn you."

Abi grabbed the messenger bag that lay at her feet excitedly and swung it onto her shoulder. "You won't hear a word!"

T-Bone and Razor jumped into the TurboKat followed Feral's chopper.

" I think I can handle only one more visit to Enforcer Headquarters." T-Bone groaned as the enforcer's landing strip came into sight.

"I hear ya." Razor mumbled as they touched down on the strip.

As the two Swat Kats followed Feral and Felina through the doors and into the busy building, the enforcers around them backed away and stared as they walked down the hallway. "Now I've seen everything." A young private whispered to his partner as everyone watched the group led by Feral and his niece disappear down the hall.

Feral threw open his office doors and walked over to his desk. "So, what should our next move be? Should we wait for them to contact us or should we seek them out?" he asked as he grabbed all of the maps of the city and the surrounding mountains and woods.

"I would think Pastie and his little padawan would come after us since we have the amulet." T-Bone commented, nodding over at Abi's messenger bag that held the amulet and several old books. "But then again, that would leave Callie in harm's way."

Felina shook her head. "They would have to keep her alive in order for their whole plan to work."

"But that wouldn't stop that sorcerer from hurting her, she's out there somewhere…and she's hurt….bad." Razor countered.

"They have a point Felina." Feral growled, knowing he had just agreed with his sworn rivalries. "There is no place safe enough to guard that amulet from them, if it stayed with us, we might have a better chance of having this whole situation turn in our favor."

"So we're going to seek them out." T-Bone commented, stating the unanimous decision.

"Yes, but were? We've searched this whole city and the surrounding areas." Felina queried.

"If I know the Pastmaster, he'd find an old place that would be hard to find or to get to…a place that hasn't been seen or touched for many years." Razor mused as he scanned the map.

Felina's eyes grew wide. "Uncle, do you remember those teenagers that went missing a week back in the Katmai's?"

Feral's eyebrows raised in surprise. "Yes, why?"

"What were the results of Philips research on the residences in that area?"

Feral shrugged. "There weren't many; there were only a couple of old abandoned trading posts and cabins, and this one supposedly haunted cathedral that was abandoned in the late 1700's…." he stopped himself abruptly, realizing the potential lead he had just said..

"I can look up that cathedral on the museums database online." Abi volunteered as she gave the messenger bag to Razor.

Feral pulled out his chair from his desk. "By all means Dr. Sinian."

Abi sat down in the chair and turned on Feral's desktop and logged on to the museum's database. "What was the name of the cathedral?" she asked.

"It's St. Michael's Cathedral." Felina informed her, looking over Phillips report that her uncle had given her.

Abi typed it in and pushed enter. "Here we are. It was built in 1613 by traveling monks who were sent to settle the wilderness. After its completion, it says here that many unfortunate incidents occurred. It was thought that the cathedral was built on an ancient burial site and the spirits were angered by the monks' intrusion. After the fire of 1798 that burst out during evening mass, killing over 100 kats, it was deserted. It is said that it is haunted by the souls of those who perished and of those who are still buried underneath the cathedral. "

"Crrrreeeeiiiipy." T-Bone whistled, as he looked at the old engraving of the cathedral that was posted on the website.

"Fits the Pastmaster to a T." Abi added.

Razor looked out of the window to see the blushing dawn paint the horizon. "As much as I hate to say this, we should wait till tonight to head on over there. We'd have a better chance of surprising them in the dark rather than in the light of day."

"Not to mention that we all should get a couple hours of sleep to sharpen our wits. The affects of two days without sleep wouldn't help us any." Felina yawned

Everyone nodded in agreement.

"Let's meet back here on the strip at 11:00." Feral suggested, "Then we'll be on our way."

Abi got up and took her bag from Razor, then hesitated. Looking up at Razor and T-Bone she smiled weakly. "Actually, I think it might be better if you guys took the amulet with you….since your guys 'residence' isn't exactly known."

T-Bone chuckled. "You sure about that?"

Abi handed Razor the amulet in its hard leather casing. "Yes, I am."

30 minutes later… the hanger…..

Jake didn't even bother to fold his flight suit in his locker. Rather, he laid it on his work bench with his bandana, helmet, and glovatrix resting on it.

"You can go ahead and head on up to bed, I'll post on the garage door that we're closed because of a 'family emergency'." Chance yawned as he set his stuff beside Jakes.

"Alright, I'll wake you up an hour before we have to meet Feral." Jake called over his shoulder as he climbed up the hanger's ladder into their living room. He walked over and turned off their TV.

He headed on up the stairs just as Chance walked out into the garage and went up into his bedroom. He sat on his bed and set his alarm for 10:00 p.m. With his alarm clock ready, he pulled back his covers and climbed in, sighing as his head hit the pillow.

Despite the overwhelming exhaustion he felt, he couldn't seem to fall asleep. He heard Chance walk up the stairs and into his bedroom, his door clicking softly behind him. Jake opened his eyes and looked out his bedroom window into the vibrant dawn, completely occupied by disturbing thoughts of Callie's welfare. This was unlike any other situation they had been in; there were so many other things that made decisions so much harder to reach.

The whole situation had this uneasy, supernatural atmosphere that wasn't easy to dismiss, and he had one of those gut feelings that nothing was going to come about to their advantage easily. He stared up at his whitewashed ceiling, trying to ease his tense body and fatigued consciousness into sleep. But as always…sleep was difficult in coming, not only for him, but for everyone else also.

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Time: Unknown……… the Cathedral…….

Callie drifted in and out of consciousness….hours drifted by slow and blurry like the sickening smell of thick perfumed air that drifted about her from the melting candles and burning sticks of spicy incense. The matter of time was incomprehensible to her delicate state of being as she fought to open her eyes. The stained glass windows above her were lit by the radiant rays of the rising sun, sending a warm shower of brilliant color on her shivering body. Her head seemed to explode in sharp shards of pain that stabbed at her already throbbing temples. She squeezed her eyes shut to calm her aching head, and felt a cold shadow fall upon her. Slowly, she reopened her eyes, to see her cloaked captor standing over her, his red eyes glowing in malevolent satisfaction.

"It's nice that you've decided to join us my dear." His tone sickenly sweet.

"You're going to pay for this Paul." She managed to croak, her dry throat unable to hide her obvious abhorrence towards him.

He chuckled as he lifted her chin with a pale finger. "My name is Pagane, and I'm afraid your friends have no idea as to where you are."

"Don't flatter yourself." She seethed, jerking her face from his grasp despite her body's protest to the sudden move.

"Has the queen awoken?" she heard an all too familiar voice query as the entrance doors swung open.

"She has my master." Pagane replied soothingly as he turned and bowed to the Pastmaster.

"Ahhh, my queen. It's a shame we weren't able to meet again under more desirable circumstances."

"I'm too repulsed by your stench to say otherwise." Callie growled, jerking on her chains.

The Pastmaster laughed as he turned his back to her and walked over to mirror. "Oh, how I love your fearless defiance, my queen, it truly is a shame that everything between us must soon come to an end. Do you care for me to explain the end of which I speak?"

"I don't think I can say anything that would persuade you from doing so." Callie spat, as she glared at the gloating sorcerers before her.

"You see my dear, I have learned from my past failures and have devised a plan will prove to be inevitable, even for your beloved Swat Kats."

"There is nothing they can't handle." Callie spat venomously, "Taking care of you and your childish schemes won't even make them break a sweat."

"Your trust in them shall be your downfall, my dear. I find it safe to say that to dispose of them shall be like ridding my cloak of some specks of dust. And the matter regarding your cooperation is no longer an irksome predicament for me."

Pagane and the Pastmaster cackled in delight. "Oh my dear, as much as I would love to have you as my bride, you'll serve a much higher purpose in my plan. You see, the royal blood you've inherited from your ancestor, Queen Callista, has proven to be an important asset to the spell I shall cast. You, my dear, are the key that shall open the gateway that borders the ethereal realm of the gods, and I shall be bestowed with their unsurpassable power when the spell is complete."

"I won't let you use me." Callie hissed.

The Pastmaster chuckled as Pagane outstretched his paw, sending forth blue ribbons of static magic that made Callie cry out as an unbearable pain devoured her.

Callie felt the cold darkness envelop her as she heard the Pastmaster's gloating reply. "You see, I've already thought of a solution. It'll be impossible for you to resist me if you're unconsciousness."

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11:05 p.m. Enforcer Headquarters air strip.

"Is everything taken care of sergeant?" Feral demanded, yelling over the noise of his running chopper.

"Yes, Commander." The sergeant saluted.

Feral nodded, his face firmly set in a grim expression. He squinted as he looked up the Swat Kats jet that was hovering a couple yards from his choppers. He looked back sharply at the waiting sergeant. "I want squadrons organized and ready to respond to my signal if I need backup, you're in charge sergeant." And without another word, his stepped into his chopper and sat down in the seat beside his niece. "Let's get going." He ordered as he put on his headset and adjusted the mouth piece.

With a gentle gesture with her right wrist, Felina guided the chopper into the air, with the other choppers in formation behind them followed in pursuit.

T-Bone guided the TurboKat up front beside Feral's chopper. Not a word was spoken on the frequencies as they flew along in silence. Before them, clouds of fine hoary thread parted, and the intense beams of moonlight shown down on them like a heatless sun. It grew darker as the city passed below them, leaving the golden blaze of its lights behind in a glowing sphere of artificial light.

"I wonder if he's expecting us." T-Bone mused as the dark sloping shape of the Katmai's slowly appeared in front of them, looming forebodingly from the low clouds and silver strips of mist that covered its treetops in a thick damp blanket.

"Yeah, probably." Razor replied, looking down at dark valley's and silver pools of water that reflected their passing shadow creeping across the moon's mirrored surface.

"Our rendezvous is at an empty campground that is 1 mile south of the cathedral." Felina informed them over the radio, somehow reading both of their minds.

"Roger that." T-Bone replied. He slowly descended to a lower altitude in pursuit of Felina and Feral's chopper. As the conifer treetops thinned out, their destination was revealed in a dark earthen circle amidst the dense forest. T-Bone set the TurboKat in hover mode as he waited for the enforcers to land their choppers. In a short amount of time, the TurboKat came to rest alongside the Feral's chopper.

Feral's small, yet capable, unit of enforcers was gathered in a spread out circle with Feral in the middle. T-Bone and Razor jumped out of the cockpit and slowly walked up to the group, stepping in beside Felina and another young lieutenant. Feral acknowledged their presence by casting a quick glance over in their direction.

"Extreme caution must be exercised during this mission. Don't underestimate the Pastmaster because of his size." Feral looked into the eyes of every one of his officers. "One act of carelessness could ruin any chance we might get to get Miss Briggs to safety and ensure any future detriment to MegaKat City. But, I don't need to lecture you on such matters since you're all aware of the seriousness of this situation."

Feral looked over at his two silent adversaries again, this time with a tiny smirk playing at his lips. "We're all a team here… and we have a very good chance that everything will fall into our favor." Everyone nodded in agreement.

T-Bone's trademark grin spread across his muzzle, lighting up the night around him. "I say we should go bury Pastie….permanently." Every enforcer smiled, murmuring and nodding in agreement.

Felina swung her bazooka up onto her shoulder and zipped her uniform jacket a little lower, revealing a good half of her white t-shirt underneath. She looked over at the Swat Kats, who couldn't help but smile.

"Let's do this." She growled.


	7. Chapter 7

Hey guys! Here is chapter 7! I am hoping that chapter 8 will come just as easily as this one did. I apologize if there are a few mechanical errors in this chap...its just that the 6th period bell is about to ring any minute and i really wanted to post this. I'm glad that you guys are enjoying this and i hope you like this chap as well. Thanx for the reviews...but as always...I WANT MORE! LOL Please keep checking for my updates...im tryiing not to drag this one out like i did my previous one. Have a nice day and enjoy!

Etherweil

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Chapter 7

"You know, I really don't feel comfortable with that bazooka aimed at my head." T-Bone whispered to Felina, who lay beside him in the bushes.

"What?" she hissed, but she looked back to her bazooka that was strapped to her back and saw that the bazooka was, indeed, aimed at his head. A smile fluttered across her face. "Sorry." She giggled, adjusting the huge weapon in another direction.

Just then, her uncle crept up behind them and kneeled by his niece and the two Swat Kats. "They're in there alright. The windows are too high to look into but the scout saw shadows moving on the wall."

"Do you want us to move in?" Razor asked, looking back at the Commander.

Feral shook his head as he looked over at the cathedral, its windows glowing, seemingly peering into the night like surprised eyes. "Yes, we will follow you in five minutes."

"Alright." Felina looked down to her right and motioned the enforcers in her command to prepare to move out.

Feral slowly stood up and watched Felina, the Swat Kats, and their unit prepare themselves to move in. "Alright, lets move out. Stay low." Felina instructed her enforcers. Looking over at her two friends she smiled. "Am I going to lead or follow?"

T-Bone huffed in mocking indignation. "Humph, Follow!"

Felina rolled her eyes as T-Bone and Razor sneaked off into the clearing, quickly and silently making their way over to the big teak doors of the cathedral. As soon as they had hid themselves in the shadows of the two dominating marble pillars, Felina and her unit followed suit and successfully joined the Swat Kats.

T-Bone's paws gripped the gothic iron door handle and slowly pulled the right door open. Everyone gritted their teeth as the door groaned in protest at being opened, making T-Bone stop halfway and listen, only to hear the deafening silence.

"I think we can all squeeze through it." Felina whispered urgently. She carefully took off her bazooka and handed it to Razor and carefully inched through the cracked door way. She stepped into the immense entryway and took a moment to stare in awe of her surroundings.

The vaulted ceiling with its intricate murals were hidden in a murky shadow that enveloped its sloping beams that groaned with age. Razor passed through the narrow opening and stood beside her, carefully handing her the bazooka. Everyone came in quickly, and stood in a silent group in the middle of the immense room. Razor's eyes narrowed as he looked down at the ancient scenes that the moons beams had painted on the marble floor in vibrant colors.

Felina walked through the rich shades of moon beams into the middle of the room and looked ahead of her at the dark hallway that led the way into the cathedrals main room. She looked back at saw that her Uncles squadron had joined her own and that T-Bone and Razor were behind her looking towards the hallway as well.

With her bazooka swung comfortable across her back, she pulled out her blaster and grasped it in her paws, and the Swat Kats held their glovatrixes ready at their sides. Feral, Abi and a couple of enforcers joined the three, prepared as well to enter the hallway first.

"Let's go." T-Bone whispered, his bold green eyes fixed before him in a determined glare. The group walked across the floor quietly and cautiously entered into the hallway. Feral and Abi stopped at the entrance of the hallway and waited for either Felina's or one of the Swat Kats signal to call the waiting unit in the main corridor.

T-Bone, Razor and Felina walked into an even bigger room, their weapons raised as they scanned the huge room thoroughly. The lights on top of their helmets illuminated the darkness, and stairs of crimson velvet fell before them, leading down into the main room that once served as the sermon area where the gleaming wooden benches by the hundreds were facing the adorned stage still cloaked with elaborate velvet fabric of rich blue, red, purple and golden hues, and at the far left of the auditorium's stage was a gilded pedestal were a preacher once stood, zealously proclaiming his sermons.

Behind them, the rest of the unit joined them.

"This is incredible." Abi whispered in awe as she looked around her in appreciation of the elaborate architecture and fine craftsmanship.

"Where is the stairway leading to the storage room above the library Dr. Sinian?" Feral inquired, looking over at the awestruck historian.

Abi aimed her flashlight towards another darkened hallway. "It should be through there and in the nook of the left corner of that room." She replied quietly.

Feral stepped in front of the group with his niece and the Swat Kats, placing Dr. Sinian in the very middle of the group. "Everyone keep your eyes peeled." He growled softly, his flashlights beam aimed directly into thick blackness of the hall.

Slowly, the group advanced into the hallway and entered into the other room. Everyone scanned the room's perimeter, weapons raised to see that the room was once again empty.

"I don't like this…." Razor gritted his teeth in suspicion, his glowing eyes darting back and forth, "…it's too quiet in here."

"You got that right." Felina growled, her flashlight falling upon the iron wrought stairway that curved up into the blackened ceiling from the far left corner of the room, just as Abi had said. "I have a bad feeling about this." Felina added, looking over at her uncle.

Feral looked back at the young enforcer who had been the scout that had found the room that the Pastmaster was occupying. "Are you sure it was the library?" Feral questioned him again.

"Yes sir, even doctor Sinian confirmed that it was the library from the blueprints she has." The young enforcer replied, nodding over at the messenger bag Abi was carrying.

Feral frowned as he looked at the staircase distrustfully. T-Bone stepped towards the staircase and placed a foot paw on the bottom stair. "I'll check it out."

Several minutes later…..

"There should be an eyehole in the floor so be watchful where you step." Abi cautioned quietly to the group that was waiting by the top of the staircase.

"We should all go one at a time to prevent the wood from creaking." Felina suggested in a hushed voice.

"I really don't trust this wood; the staircase was one thing but this… is completely different." T-Bone murmured to Razor, who just shook his head.

"We don't have a choice buddy. This is the only way to see into the library without being seen."

"I think if you're really careful and go really slow, you'll be fine. It appears as if the Pastmaster has pretty much restored everything." Abi observed.

T-Bone shook his head. "Whatever you say Dr. Sinian."

"I'll go first." Razor offered as he stepped ahead of everyone else.

"Be careful." T-Bone cautioned, trying to mask his unease.

Razor gently placed another foot paw in front of him and let his weight distribute evenly on the wooden floor that had not yet given away his presence. He continued to tip toe until he spotted an eyehole on the floor by his front foot paw. He looked back at his awaiting comrades and motioned for them to wait as he slowly kneeled down by the hole and peered into it.

His eyes turned into malevolent slits as he looked down upon a chained, beat up Callie who was leaning back against a wall. He fought to control the searing anger and hate that swelled up in his chest as he located the Pastmaster and the cloaked figure that stood by a huge mirror undoubtly planning something. He looked over at T-Bone and the others and motioned for them to start coming over.

Everyone made it over to Razor successfully. Now, after, Feral, Felina, T-Bone and Abi had seen through the eyehole as well, they were anxious to get her out as soon as possible.

"We just can't burst in to the library through its doors." Feral argued, "We would have a better chance catching them off guard."

"And how do you propose we do that?" T-Bone growled.

Razor just shook his head and leaned his head against his paw. Usually he was the one who came up with the rescue or escape plan, but now he couldn't come up with anything.

"Maybe half of the unit should go back down to the library's main doors and burst in the same time we go down through the trap door." Felina suggested.

"How do we know that they still don't know we're still here…what if they're just acting like they don't know that we're here?" Razor whispered his tone dead serious. Everyone looked over at him worriedly.

"I wouldn't be surprised." T-Bone growled bitterly, catching a glimpse of the Pastmaster's shimmering cloak through the eyehole.

"Commander Feral!" an enforcer hissed urgently from Feral's far right. Everyone looked over at the enforcer who was sitting up on his knees. "Sir! The tip of Bryan's is stuck in a soft spot in the floor."

Feral cursed silently to himself as he crawled over towards the enforcer who had spoken.

"I'm going to go over to help." T-Bone whispered to Razor and Felina as he started to crawl over to the stuck enforcer.

"Alright." Razor nodded. Felina watched with him as Feral surveyed the soft spot where the enforcers boot tip was.  
"This isn't good." Feral growled. He looked up at one of his lieutenants. "Grab the other side of his ankle and help me get it out quietly." He ordered. As Feral and the lieutenant were pulling out the enforcers boot, T-Bone's eyes grew wide. "Crud! Feral stop!" he hissed.

Feral stopped immediately. "What is it?" he snapped.

"His boot is actually all the way through the floor, if you keep moving it, there is a good chance they might see it." T-Bone growled. Feral looked down at the Enforcers wedged foot. once again cursing quietly to himself

"Uncle he's right!" Felina informed him in an urgent undertone. "Because Callie is looking up towards us."

Suddenly, the whole attic floor shuddered and groaned unexpectedly. Razor looked down in the eyehole quickly, to see that Callie's eyes had grown bigger. He looked down where the Pastmaster and the cloaked figure were standing and saw that the Pastmaster had his watch aimed towards the ceiling, directly at the spot where the tip of the enforcers boot was showing through. His eyes grew wide in alarm as he looked up over at T-Bone and the other enforcers.

It happened in only a matter of a few seconds. They floor grew warm under them and gave out underneath them. They all heard Callie scream over the deafening cracking sound of the attic flooring, as they all plummeted towards the ground with shattered pieces of flooring before they even had time to react. Razor closed his eyes, expecting to hit the marble floor at full speed, but instead, felt his body hit something soft and bouncy. He opened his eyes immediately as a sharp pain jabbed into his side, to see that Felina had landed on top of him, her elbow digging into him.

Everyone had, unbelievably, landed in an uncomfortable heap on some furniture that was pushed together in the far corner of the library. T-Bone, buried under several dazed bodies opened his eyes and saw that he was looking directly into the wide, startled eyes of a starved teenager that lay gagged and bound next to the side of the couch.

"So much for our element of surprise." Felina growled as she struggled to get to her feet.

"Well, well, looked who dropped in to pay us a little visit." The Pastmaster gloated in a mocking tone.

Feral managed to maintain his dignity as he stood up to his full height. "Pastmaster, you are under arrest."

The little sorcerer and his accomplice cackled in delight.

"You fool! You think your pathetic little band can stop me now?" The Pastmaster boomed, his watch raised towards them.

"Look out!" Razor yelled as he pushed Felina to the ground. T-Bone threw several enforcers in front of him to the ground as well as a heated beam screamed inches from his back.

"You are no match for me or my powers you pathetic mortals!" The Pastmaster thundered triumphantly. Razor and T-Bone jumped to their feet as if in defiant response. "Try me!" T-Bone spat as he and Razor fired spider missiles towards the unprepared sorcerer.

The little kat grunted in dismay as the two missiles hit their mark, and embedded themselves into the wall with the struggling sorcerer trapped in their steel talons. "Get rid of them Pagane!" he screamed as he threw his watch towards the outstretched hand of his accomplice. Pagane caught it skillfully and in a booming voice, he threw the watche's blinding beam towards them.

Like silent lightning, the watches powerful rays enveloped the surprised group. Razor and T-Bone, in the fore front of the blinding beams, shielded their eyes with their paws, as did the enforcers. The blinding light transformed into a blinding white light that made Callie close her eyes and move her head to the side, her face touching the cold stone wall.

As the blinding light dimmed out, she dared to slowly turn her head back towards the spot where her attempting rescuers stood, and saw that they were gone without a trace.

Her chest grew tight, and she could no longer breathe as she felt her eyes brimming with tears. "NNNNOOOOOOO!" she screamed at the top of her lungs. As her body shook in pain, the reply to her hoarse scream was the malevolent cackling of her wicked capturers.


	8. Chapter 8

Iiiiiiieeeeeemmmmmmm back! Woohoo! Sorry guys that this chap was so slow in coming...ive had really big school projects, dance rehearsals,and on top of that i had to take time out to go on my vacation...(I wrote a good 89 of this on a beach in Maui hehe that is the life im telling ya!) so yeah i had to put this on the back burner for a while. I hope you guys enjoy this chap...i promise the following chaps will have alot more stuff going on...i had to get through the whole time travel thing. This was a hard chap for me to write cuz i didnt want it to get confusing. If you are confused about any part of this, please feel free to PM me and I will get back to you ASAP. Well, Enjoy! REVIEWS ARE REQUIRED OR ELSE! hehe if ya get my drift raises eyebrows I got the power! LOL until the next update! Happy reading!

Etherweil

The smell of green vegetation was thick in the steamy air. T-Bone's eyes fluttered open and it took him a minute to realize that he was no longer in the cathedral's library. Was he in the woods?…Nooooo….since when did the Katmai forest have palm trees? He shot up onto his knees and looked around him in shock. Around him lay his knocked out comrades who were starting to show some sign of life. Slowly, he stood up as an idea of where they were came to him.

He walked over to Razor, leaned down, grabbed his shoulders, and started to shake him. "Razor, Raaaaaazzzzzoooorrrrr wwwaaakkkkeeee uuuuhhhhpppp…..WAKE UP!"

Razor's eyes shot open in alarm as soon as T-Bone yelled. "Geez T-Bone! Did you have to yell in my ear?" he groaned as he slowly got up to his feet.

"Does any of THIS look familiar to you?' T-Bone demanded, motioning to the tropical forest around him.

"What the?" Razor looked around him in surprise as the reality of it all slowly set in.

"Uggghhh where are we?" Abi groaned as her head emerged from the dense ferns that carpeted the forest floor around them.

Razor started to chuckle to himself in disbelief as he walked around, "I can't believe that this is happening to us." He growled as he kicked the soft earth angrily.

Feral stood up and started to brush himself off while he waited for his head to clear. "Where are we?" he demanded, looking up at a clearly agitated T-Bone.

"I swear I'm going to impale that little troll and that crony of his on that cathedral's steeple when I get my paws on them." T-Bone chuckled as he flexed his paws, his morbid humor a mask of the seething anger that was trying to emerge its ugly head.

Felina walked up to Razor with her paws on her hips and looked him straight in the eyes. "Where are we?"

"And where are the rest of my men?" Feral exclaimed in exasperation, after seeing that his original unit was now gone..

"That creep must some have sent them somewhere else." T-Bone guessed, closing his eyes.

Razor shook his head. "We have nothing, no extra weapons or ammunition, no transportation, no extra clothing, no food…."

Felina looked at Razor questionably. 'I'm waiting for you to answer my question…where are we?"

A thunderous roar echoed throughout the forest, shattering the silence like a hammer crushing glass. Felina nearly jumped out of her skin as she stared in the apparent direction of the roar. "What….was….that?" she demanded.

"Well, if our luck keeps up like has been, it's probably a T-Rex." Razor answered in matter-of-fact tone.

Feral stared at Razor, his face expressionless while Felina's arms dropped to her side as she started to laugh. "A what?" she breathed, "I mean…come on…..you've got to be kidding me."

Abi shook her head as she finished examining one of the trees. "I'm afraid they're not, that sorcerer sent us back sometime in the dinosaur period."

"Ohhhh…… this is just great." Feral seethed,

"Yet, it figures." Felina finished her uncle's sentence, her face cringed in annoyance.

Another roar shook the forest, only this time it was closer.

"From what I know from past experience, we should continue this conversation up in a tree." Razor suggested.

"I second that. Let's find a tall tree fast." Abi agreed, anxious to get off the ground to a safer height.

The five kats grouped together and started to look for an appropriate tree. Unfamiliar sounds, along with the occasional roar that was growing in velocity, crashed down around them.

"Guys I think I've found the perfect tree." Felina announced as she walked through the dense forestry up to huge tree that provided a lot of branches that would assist in their climbing venture. Another roar, this time, unnervingly close erupted from behind them along with the sound of the undergrowth being trampled by some huge monster of the past. Without a word, Felina motioned Abi up towards the tree.

"I'm so glad I wore jeans and sneakers." Abi huffed under her breathe as she started to climb the lofty tree that stretched up before her.

As soon as Abi was up a couple branches, Feral motioned for Felina to head on up. Abi and Felina made very good progress, and soon it was only Feral, T-Bone and Razor left on the ground. They craned their necks to watch Abi climb into a huge, bed like ledge where the trees truck formed a cage with the other smaller trucks that branched off.

The fur on the back of T-Bone's neck prickled when another roar ripped through the air. Feral quickly started to climb, with Razor and T-Bone close behind him.

"Holy Kats." Abi breathed as she saw a glimpse of the T-Rex crashing through the woods towards their tree, obviously following their scent.

"It's going to be right behind them." Felina said anxiously. She crawled over to the edge and looked over to see that her uncle and the Swat Kats where in the perfect place for the T-Rex to get a quick snack. "HURRY UP ITS RIGHT BEHIND YOU!" she screamed.

"What did she say?" T-Bone asked, looking up at Razor and Feral. A loud crash sounded behind him, as if to answer his question. Slowly, the three tomkats looked behind them to see that the T-Rex's greedy eyes were fixed right on them.

"Oh crap oh crap oh crap! Move it! MOVE IT NOW!" T-Bone loudly yet unnecessarily urged.

The maximum speed of Feral's climbing was pretty fast, but it proved to be not fast enough. The T-Rex charged the tree, making T-Bone and Razor loose their grip. Razor managed to through himself to another branch to the side of him, while Feral held on, but T-Bone, who got the full force of the impact, completely lost his grip and plummeted to the ground, breaking several branches on his way by hitting them with his back.

Before he hit, he managed to summersault, sparing his back some of the impact but at the speed he hit the ground, it still managed to knock the air from his lungs.

"T-Bone!" Razor screamed. Not even thinking, he let go of the branch he was hanging onto and dropped, managing to grab hold of the bottom branch above a dazed T-Bone, and land in a crouch by his friend.

T-Bone was only a few feet away from the T-Rex, which just realized that T-Bone was closer to it then Feral was. With a deafening roar it started to walk towards him. "Launch your grappling hook!" Razor yelled. They both aimed for the highest branch their hooks would reach, and shot up just seconds before the T-Rex could reach them.

The T-Rex let out a fierce growl as it watched its prey escape.

"Come on bud, we're almost there." Razor urged his now sore partner. They were now only a couple branches away from where the rest of their group was. Feral and Felina had their paws held out for them and helped them get up the rest of the way onto the trees overhanging. "Are you alright?" Felina asked T-Bone, who was sitting against one of the trunks breathing heavily.

"Yeah. I'm fine." T-Bone grinned. After a moment he started to laugh. "It was right…right there! I mean we were only a couple of inches away from one of the world's most deadly carnivores…and… god I HATE dinosaurs." Nobody couldn't help but laugh, and after a while everyone settled down and rested.

"So, what do we do now?" Abi asked after she considered the possibility that she might not return back to their time.

"I think we just need to keep an eye open for one of the Pastmaster's time warps." Razor spoke up for everyone else.

Another moment of silence enveloped the group.

"What happens if we don't find a time warp?" Felina asked with a smile tugging at her mouth..

"Then just think of this as your free, lifetime survival training course." T-Bone sighed, still leaning against one of the smaller tree trunks.

"We'll find one, don't worry." Abi smiled comfortingly, trying to make light of the situation.

"Before we start looking for one, however, we should all try to get some sleep. There is no telling when we might get another opportunity to rest somewhere safe." Feral said, his tone matter-of-fact as he made himself comfortable.

"I couldn't agree with you more Commander." T-Bone yawned.

Sooner or later, one by one drifted off into a restless sleep as darkness fell, an occasional roar or shriek from a dinosaur completely shattering the little piece of mind they had left.

Modern Times……Back the Cathedral.

"Curses! They had the amulet with them when you banished them!" The Pastmaster sneered as he watched Abi's image in the mirror pull out the amulet from her bag.

Callie was now leaning up against the cold wall behind her, glaring at the Pastmaster and his accomplice through swollen red eyes. She watched as the dwarf menace stepped onto his pedestal and held his bony arms aloft, vials of glowing substances clutched in his tightened paws. He started to mutter ancient verses in a deep dreary tone.

Callie was consumed completely by a profound feeling of searing hatred toward her capturers as she glared at them from her dark corner. The contents in the cauldron began to bubble excitedly with a renewed vigor at the command of the Pastmaster's spell.

A big wooden bookshelf was standing up against the wall right across from her, right in reach of her chained feet. Callie studied it carefully, and she directed her eyes back to Pagane and the Pastmaster. An idea formed in her mind as she realized where the bookcase would fall IF it was pushed. She looked back over at the two wizards as she slowly slid her chained feet behind the bookcase.

As soon as the PastMaster was leaning completely over the bubbling cauldron, Callie pushed with all of her remaining strength against the back of the bookcase with her feet, which sent it and its contents rushing down onto the floor, in the cauldron and on top of Pagane and the PastMaster. With a startled yelp, the PastMaster fell into the cauldron as the bookcase fell on top of him. Pagane leaped to aide his master when he realized that the bookcase had shoved the tiny sorcerer into the cauldron. Callie watched with a triumphant smirk on her face as Pagane pushed the bookcase to the floor and helped a sputtering Pastmaster from the steaming contents that was now dotted with ruined books. The Pastmaster was a neat shade of beet red as he stood there, glaring at Callie. She could almost see the steam pouring out from his pointy ears as she tried not to laugh at his sour expression.

"Curse you!" he spat as he threw his drenched cloak on the floor behind him. He shook in anger, an accusing bony finger shaking in her direction as he glared at her. "You have ruined my spell! There is no telling now the damage you might have caused!"

Callie said nothing in return but returned his icy glare. He turned towards Pagane, who was trying to fish the soggy books from the discolored liquid in the cauldron. "Fetch me the book of Sight so that I may find the location of the amulet."

Pagane went quickly to fetch the book as the irate Pastmaster walked up to the standing mirror. Pagane approached him swiftly, handing him the book with a slight bow. Callie watched suspiciously as the Pastmaster thumbed through the ancient book.

"Even though you have complicated things, my dear queen, your desperate diversions haven't swayed me in the least." The Pastmaster gloated as he smirked down at the page before him, studying the elegantly written words that were on its delicate page. He closed his beady black eyes and let his head tilt back slightly, so that his face was directed at the obsidian jewel that was placed amidst silver wrought eaves that made up the mirrors carved frame.

Slowly, the surface of the mirror began to glow subtly. Callie watched the mirrors surface with a leery fascination as it seemed to melt away like a hoary frost would in the golden rays of a summer morning. A clear, reflective surface replaced the silver, chasing it to the very edge of the mirrors surface to the ancient frame.

The eerie lyrics of a mysterious ancient song seemed to emerge from the mirror as fleeting scenes of lush vegetation and monstrous, ivy covered trees, then a murky black gradually enveloped the screen, then a blurry image of cobbled streets and cottages slowly emerged. The unworldly chorus of melodious song grew louder with each passing second as gray stone walls were shown. Then, the serious face of Dr. Simian appeared. The Pastmaster turned sharply away from the mirror as Abi's image slowly faded. Callie held an abated breath and closed her eyes. There was a good chance that they all were alive and well.

"Pagane, what books fell into the cauldron?" the Pastmaster demanded in a steely tone. Pagane glanced down at the ruined books that lay devastated by his feet.

"They are the journals of Queen Callista of Megalith City, master."

The tiny sorcerer scowled. He remembered well the last time the Swat Kats had joined forces with Queen Callista. But what disturbed him the most was that they had the amulet and it's secret.

"No matter." He comforted himself, as he walked over to another bookcase. "It won't be long until the amulet is mine and the Swat Kats along with their friends are buried along with their ancestors."

Author's Note: As you might have guessed, the sense of time greatly differs from our hero's own time to that of the prehistoric time in which they were sent. The beginning of this section is before Callie disrupts the Pastmaster's spell. When a drastic change befalls the Swat Kats, Abi, and the Feral's, it is then that Callie pushes the bookcase over and Queen Callista's journals fall into the cauldron. If you are confused about anything, feel free to PM me and I'll get back to you ASAP :P thanx guys!

**Back to our heroes in the dinosaur infested jungle :P…………….**

"Do you really think it's safe to be out of the tree?" Abi asked, still nervous about leaving their little tree house haven to explore the dangerous environment around them.

"We're not safe in one place for long; it would be safer if we kept moving on." Razor replied as he helped her down from the last branch of the tree.

"We should really start looking for one of those time portals." Felina added. Abi adjusted her messenger bag comfortably onto her shoulders. Trying to upbeat and positive, she gave her weary comrades a bright smile. "In that case, we should keep an eye out for a fruit tree or some herbs."

T-Bone looked at her blankly. "A fruit tree?"

"Yes, a fruit tree." Abi replied confidently. "Not all dinosaurs are carnivorous, there are bound to be edible vegetation around here. There are also the lakes, rivers and the ocean shore that provide us with fish."

The burly Swat Kat gave her a doubtful look. "There is nothing you can do to make me go fish in this time period."

Felina looked at T-Bone with an amused expression. "Will you stick to that decision when we have nothing to eat but fruits and plants?"

"Have you ever heard of the expression 'There is always a bigger fish'? And I am pretty sure there are more big fish than little fish that occupy the bodies of water around here." T-Bone returned challengingly.

Everyone but Feral laughed. "Besides, fruits and veggies are better for you than meat." T-Bone grinned.

Razor snorted as he looked over at his friend. "I would like to see you live by those words of wisdom when we get back home."

T-Bone looked back at Razor, not amused. "Funny."

The group grew silent as they walked through the dense, tropical forest. They soon came across a sparkling, slow moving river that was shaded by the immense tree tops above that allowed only a few shattered rays of sunlight to penetrate. As they walked up alongside the river bank, none of them saw the sudden drop off of the steep hillside due to the dense shrubbery and ferns that came up to their knees.

Feral was the first to let out a startled yelp when he and his niece discovered that the earth was no longer beneath their feet. T-Bone, Razor and Abi jumped back in alarm. "Crud!" Razor growled as he peered down into the deep hillside.

"Do you see them?" T-Bone asked. Muffled, yet distinct mutterings drifted up to their ears, somewhat answering T-Bone's question. Slowly, T-Bone and Razor slid and slipped down the hillside, with Abi following slowly behind them.

The two Swat Kats reached the part were the steep slope evened out but instead of it being solid earth, it was a vast, deep hole of thick, sticky mud. They both stopped dead in their tracks when they saw that the two lumps in the middle of the mud hole were Felina and Feral, and they were completely covered from head to toe in mud. Razor lifted his paw to his mouth as he struggled to keep his mirth quiet. T-Bone, however, just burst out laughing. He was bent over, his stomach aching and completely out of breath with tears leaking from his eyes.

"Need help getting out guys?" Razor managed to tame his laughter into a big grin.

"No! I do not!" Feral seethed as he stood up, resembling something relative to the monster of the black lagoon, but as soon as he stepped unsteadily forward, his foot went out underneath him and he fell flat on his back. This made the two Swat Kats laugh even harder. Abi, who was still making her way down the hillside, slipped on a slimy root, fell flat on her tail and went zipping down the hillside right into the chuckling Swat Kats. Razor and T-Bone went toppling into the mud face first and Abi fell flat on her back with a loud 'SPLAT'! A previously scowling and speechless Feral and Felina found themselves laughing at their three shocked comrades who were now covered in mud. T-Bone stumbled to his feet unsteadily and looked down at his heavily soiled flight suit.

"Ah crud!" he sputtered as he shook his arms, sending globs of mud flying.

T-Bone, like Feral, lost his balance in the slippery goo and fell on his back in the same manner as Feral.

Razor, Abi, and Felina were laughing so hard you could see the paths of the tears that were coursing down their mud covered cheeks. Even Feral couldn't help but laugh at the sight of the two mud covered Swat Kats who where were laughing with everyone else. "Well, I must say that seeing you two in here makes me feel better about myself." Feral chuckled as he carefully got back onto his feet and slowly waded over to the firm moss covered ledge.

T-Bone also got to his feet and waded over to Felina, and offered her a mud covered paw with his bright grin standing out brilliantly against his mud-covered face. Felina shook her head as she laughed. "It's really sad that I don't have a camera, you look so ridiculous." She chuckled as she took his paw in hers.

T-Bone pulled her gently to her feet. "I do not!" he exclaimed with mock indignation. "Razor over there could pass as Wilbur off of 'Charlotte's Web." T-Bone immediately felt a well aimed blob of mud splatter on the back of his head and leak down into his shirts collar. Abi and Felina again burst out laughing while T-Bone turned around slowly to face his friend. Razor was standing a few feet away, a mischievous smirk and glint in his eyes as he held another mud blob ready in his paw.

"Did you just…." T-Bone growled playfully, as he pointed to the back of his head. Razor the mud ball up in the air and caught it again, a picture of innocence on his face. "Now why would I do that to youuuu………..THINK FAST!" With lightening speed, Razor threw the mud blob smack dab into T-Bone's face.

T-Bone at first was stunned, but then a smirk spread across his face as he cleared his eyes of mud. "Alright, that's it!" he growled. T-Bone pounced on his friend, sending Razor onto his back. "EAT MUD!" T-Bone laughed as he rubbed a handful of mud into Razor's face.

"BBBLLLEEAAAHHHHH!" Razor spat. He grabbed T-Bone's shoulders, dug his feet into his stomach, and sent his friend flying over his head. T-Bone slid on his stomach in the mud a few feet away from Razor. Before he could get up, Razor jumped on his back and wrapped his arm across his neck to where he couldn't remove it yet he could still breathe easily.

"Lieutenant! Help me out here!" Razor beckoned the amused Felina in front of them.

Felina needlessly rolled up her sleeves. "Allllright!" Felina threw herself at T-Bone, making him fall on Razor. Razor let out a gasp and his grip on T-Bone loosened. "Not helping." He panted.

T-Bone rolled around quickly and grabbed Razor. "Rub some mud in his face quick!" he instructed Felina. Felina bent down and grabbed some mud.

"Hey that's not fair! I'm outnumbered!" Razor protested. Felina and T-Bone laughed. "Did I just hear the unbeatable Razor say he was outnumbered?" Felina admonished.

A blob of mud splattered on Felina's face, making her drop the mud in her paw. Another blob narrowly missed Razor and got T-Bone, allowing him to get away from his blinded torturers easily. Abi was standing right there, a triumphant grin on her face.

"Alright Dr. Simian!" Razor applauded as they gave each other a high five.

"Alright, enough play! We should get a move on!" Feral announced sternly while he could be heard.

Felina and T-Bone bent down and grabbed some mud. "Right after we settle this Uncle!" Felina grinned, attempting to stare down Abi.

"Bring it on!" Razor returned challengingly.

Feral shook his head as he peeled of his coat. He let out a sigh as he settled down on the damp ground of the hillside, and watched them exchange heavy fire. He surprised himself with the fact that he didn't mind watching the mud fight, and that he found it pretty entertaining.

An hour later……

"I'm telling ya, it was a tie!" Razor argued good naturedly while they all walked down onto the bank of the river.

"Nope, we clearly won, huh uncle?" Felina insisted, looking over at her uncle for support.

Feral shook his head. "I don't know, it looked like a tie to me."

"Ha!" Abi cried triumphantly.

"Well, we should have won because you helped them out!" Felina smiled, looking over at her uncle accusingly.

"Yeah! It wasn't fair that I was your primary target." T-Bone stated. He was the muddiest of them all.

Feral smirked. "It was a lot more satisfying to hit you with mud than it was the others."

Everyone but T-Bone laughed. "Now why don't' I find that surprising?" the burly tom sighed, as he brushed some mud from his clothes into the slow moving water.

"Because it's a cold fact of nature that he hates you more than me." Razor stated smartly before he dove into the deep river. T-Bone just shook his head as he waded in deeper.

Everyone washed themselves clean and then relaxed on the creeks banks. Abi was wading to her waist, studying the rivers sandy bottom for some small creature that she had read about in one of her books. Feral had dozed off leaning on a tree trunk, while Felina sat in between the two swat kats, Razor was laying on his back while T-Bone sat and cleaned his almost empty glovatrix.

Then, the peaceful quiet was broken suddenly by a startled yelp as Abi disappeared under water. Razor leaped up, T-Bone, Felina, and Feral only seconds behind. "Wait here!" Razor yelled to them before he dove into the water. They had no choice but to wait as they watched Razor's blurry image zip out to where Abi had disappeared.

Razor was expecting nothing less than some horrific monster with sharp claws and fangs but instead he saw a giant hole on the river bottom of a swirling, light blue with streaks of white. Abi had been sucked into the time portal. Razor kicked up quickly towards the rivers surface.

"Come on out here quick! It's a portal!" he instructed urgently. They all were out there in a matter of seconds. "Okay, the Commander and Lieutenant Feral will go in first. Then you'll go T-Bone and I will follow you."

Feral and Felina both took a deep breath before they went under. After a few seconds, Razor and T-Bone followed suit. Razor watched T-Bone disappear into the portal.

Razor was just about to go into the portal when he felt something cold and slimy grab his ankle. He whirled around quickly and was staring into the cold yellow eyes of an eel like creature the size of a giant anaconda. The creature with a powerful flick of its slimy tail shoved Razor into the sandy bottom. Razor quickly seized the small slimy log that lay buried in the sand next to him and put it in front of his neck. The eel's mouth closed around the log, and its teeth sunk into its soft organic flesh easily.

Knowing that the small log wasn't going to last for very long, he got his glovatrix paw free and slammed down on the beasts head with all of his force. The eel hissed in pain as it reared up in a cloud of its own blood. Razor then aimed his glovatrix and deployed a slicer missile. The eels grasp on his ankle went limp as he severed it. Before the creature realized that its tail was gone, the last of its intended prey's slicer missiles found its mark.

Razor kicked away from the eel's headless and tailless body towards the portal. Before anything else could target him for their next meal he disappeared into the portal. As soon as he went through it, it shrunk and completely disappeared from the rivers bottom, the kicked up sand falling silently like snow upon the eel's carcass and the disturbed area where it had been only seconds before.

Razor found himself falling through air. Before his body could react to the drastic change, he fell through an already made hole in a thatched roof. A broken rafter caught the release string of his parachute, making it burst forth from its case and tangle in the broken rafters. His fall was stopped violently ten feet from the floor. "Hhhhhhheeeeeelllllmmmmmmmpppphhhhh!" he wheezed as his harness grew suffocatingly taunt from the sudden stop of his plummet. He let out an irate groan as he twisted and swung amidst draping canvas and rope. It was then, that he heard an excited voice that was all too familiar. "Sir Razor!"

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HMMMMMMM who could that be? Anyone? lol, you'll see in the next chap! Duh DUh duh DUUUUUUUUUHHHHHHHH!

P.S...RRRRRRRRRREEEEEEIIIIIIIIIIIVVVVVVIIIIIIIEEEEEEEWWWWWWSSSSSSS!


	9. Chapter 9

Hey Guys! Sorry for the delay in my updating this...I have a very good excuse(s) tho! Homework! Go figure heh? LOL I've also been co writing a story/script line with James L King for a SK project so I've had to put this on the back burner for a while. Well, this chap isnt as long as i wanted it to be originally, but I wanted to give you guys something so you wouldnt be waiting too long. This chapter was also very hard for me write due to the emotional confrontations between the characters...sorry if this chap sucks, im not all that good writing stuff like this so I'm still trying to perfect this type of writing. Give me your honest opinions please...thnx for your patience...

Etherweil

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T-Bone, who was splayed out across the broken tabletop slowly sat up, grimacing at the unpleasant pain that throbbed throughout his back, neck, and head.

"Sir T-Bone! Well, this is certainly an unexpected, yet pleasant, surprise." Callista smiled as she walked around to the dazed Swat Kats.

Abi gawked in disbelief at the fact that she was in the presence of one of the world's greatest medieval rulers, as Feral and Felina too sat up slowly from the ruins of the queens table.

"My queen!" Razor gasped as he struggled to release himself from his parachute.

T-Bone scowled at the buckled table that broken their fall.. "Sorry about your table." He mumbled as he rubbed the back of his neck.

"You know her?" Abi gasped incredulously, as Felina and Feral looked from T-Bone and Razor expectedly.

Callista continued to study the three newcomers and their attire with keen curiosity. "They rescued me and my kingdom from the Pastmaster several years ago." She explained. "And I think it is safe to say that you both are here because of him?" she queried, looking up at a dangling Razor with a knowing smile.

"You could say that." T-Bone grunted as he stood up, his back hunched in pain.

"And who are your travel companions?" Callista nodded her head over to Abi, Felina and Feral, who had also just gotten to their feet.

Razor, who was finally able to release himself from his parachute, landed softly behind the medieval queen. "That is Dr. Abi Simian, she is a historian back in our time, and beside her is Lt. Felina Feral and Commander Ulysses Feral of MegaKat City's enforcers, or as you would say of the cities army." He introduced, trying to explain their occupations so Callista could understand.

The queen nodded in appreciation. "It is nice to meet you all, and I welcome you to Megalith City."

Callista's eyes drifted over to where Abi was standing, and her expression grew colder when she saw the silver chain around her neck. Abi tried to keep her sense of dignity about her as Callista walked up to her. "I don't want to come across as officious, but would you please show me what ornament you are carrying about your neck?"

Abi's paw strayed to where the amulet hung on her chest as she looked in alarm over to Razor and T-Bone.

"Its alright, she's on our side." Razor nodded assuringly.

Abi slowly pulled the amulet from inside her shirt and held it out for the queen to see. Callista's expression turned dark when she saw the amulet, and breathed in deeply before looking into Abi's eyes. "Where did you get this?" she demanded softly, trying to keep the hardness from her authoritive voice.

"I found it during an excavation in Egypt. I dug it up from the riverbed of the Nile."

"And there it should have stayed." Callista spoke harshly, her eyes flashing. She looked back to T-Bone and Razor. "Do you know what this amulet is?" she inquired.

"Yes, Queen Callista. Dr. Simian didn't know of its history until the Pastmaster's accomplice tried to steal it from the museum." Razor informed wary queen.

The fire in Callista's eyes died down as she looked Abi again. "I apologize for my previous intolerance, it wasn't directed towards you Doctor, but for the evil this amulet contains; it offers nothing but misfortune and death to its owner and katkind." Queen Callista stepped back so that she had the five of them directly in her sight. "You say the Pastmaster was after the amulet?" she inquired.

"Yes, your majesty. We have good reason to believe that he is going to use it to open the gateway to the realm of the gods. Lucky for us, we were able to keep it from him." Abi explained before anyone else could answer Callista.

The queen's expression grew grim. "Does he have the key?"

"Yes, your majesty. He has abducted your descendant Calico Briggs." Razor sighed, his head slightly lowered in what could be called shame.

Callista closed her eyes and sighed wearily. "Do you think it was his intention to send you here to my time or was it another accident of his?"

"I'm sure it was unintentional, because he first banished us to some time in the dinosaur period, it was only by chance that we found a time portal that brought us here." T-Bone spoke up.

"And it was probably Miss Briggs that helped bring about that portal." Feral spoke aloud what everyone else was thinking.

Callista smiled. "Yes, it is fortunate that you are all here. We now must come up with a solution to this predicament, for everything in the past, present, and future are at stake. Come, we shall continue our discussion in my library."

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In the Queen's personal library….

"So the only thing that can destroy the amulet is itself." Felina repeated Callista's words aloud, obviously thinking what everyone else in the room was thinking.

The queen nodded gravely.

"And the only thing that will permanently stop the Pastmaster from going through with the ritual is to destroy it." Feral sighed as he leaned back further into the plush chair he was sitting in.

"How can we get it to destroy itself?" T-Bone moaned, completely tired of the whole ordeal they were going through.

They all stared at the amulet that lay on the table, glistening in the cold candlelight. Callista sat down in her seat softly and looked at her guests troubled faces. As she looked at the amulet, her gentle voice politely disrupted the silence. "If you listen carefully, you will be able to hear the song it whispers in the silence to draw in its slaves."

Everyone looked at her curiously, but spared the questions running through their minds to see what she meant. As several moments passed, the silence grew deafening as the air grew still. Razor's eyes grew wide in amazement as the fiery blue opal of the amulet started to swirl with a frosty mist that danced within its body. In rhythmic harmony, eerie voices of unfathomable beauty floated upon the still air of the dark library.

An overwhelming feeling of weariness befell them all but Callista, as the harmonious hymns put their minds at ease. Razor's whole being was completely enveloped with an inner peace he had never felt in his whole life. As his vision of the library and Callista blurred, he suddenly found himself walking in a world that he knew, deep down in his inner consciousness, could never exist.

He was walking on a white sandy shore perfectly groomed by the caressing waves of the crystal blue ocean, not as Razor, but as Jake. The sound of the waves lapping the shoreline further enhanced the beautiful lyrics of the amulets song, making him wish that this world he was now in would never go away.

Ahead of him, he saw Callie standing on the edge of the shoreline, letting the gentle waves of the sea massage her bare feet. She was in a dress as pure and white as the clouds that streaked the cornflower sky, her golden hair flowing behind her in silky wisps, curling in the warm salty breeze. She looked over at him with a loving smile on her content face and stretched out her perfectly tanned paw towards him, as if she was expecting him to join her.

A faint feeling of shock teased his numb mind when all he could hear was her calling his name. Time seemed to pass by slowly as if he was walking through molasses, but as he drew closer to her, he could clearly understand what she was saying. He stretched his paw out, ready to take hers into his when he suddenly woke to the deafening sound of 'Razor!' being spoken by a voice that seemed to be right next to him.

He found himself back in Callista's personal library, and he was standing right in front of the table, his paw inches away from touching the amulet. He then noticed that his heart was pounding rapidly in his chest and everyone but Callista was staring at him in surprise.

Callista stood up from her chair and walked up beside him. "What just happened?" he asked breathlessly, as he looked over at Callista for an explanation.

Callista smiled gently. "It was calling you to it. Out of everyone else in this room, it chose to lure you into its enchantment."

Razor's expression was that of alarm. "Why?"

"Your soul is weary, Sir Razor. Whether it is from hatred, jealousy, loneliness, sadness or even fear, whatever has been haunting you has worn down you defenses, making you a target for all things that feed upon such inflictions that wear down the soul. The elements that brought this amulet into being are based entirely on the fear of loss and malice of the spirit. Its ability to manipulate these imperfections into things of false light is what makes it so powerful because those who posses fear and hate have the lust for power, which is nothing but greed."

Everyone was speechless, and the silence of the library was all the more deafening. Callista broke her eye contact with Razor and looked at the others. "Why do you think the Pastmaster wants the amulet? Everything he does is motivated by his darkest fears, and the hate that has consumed him, which has in return increased his appetite for power. It's the same story with his accomplice; with the amulet, they will become invincible and everything will fall into his hands. Needless to say, we cannot let that happen."

Everyone nodded in silent agreement, the weight of the situation a weary burden on their shoulders. Callista could clearly see the mental exhaustion on their faces as the horrific reality of it all slowly settled in.

"Doubtless, you're all exhausted from this ordeal so I think it's wise that you all take a rest for the remainder of the evening. I will take the liberty of putting the amulet in a secure place and we will continue this tomorrow. I will have he maids show you to your rooms."

With a quick flick of the wrist, Callista rang her hand bell and several maids entered into the library. Abi and Felina got up and left and before Feral followed, he looked at Razor with a refounded suspicion then turned his back on him. T-Bone just stood there across from him, his green eyes looking at his friend with mixed emotions that made his irises as vibrant as flames. And then, he walked off to the maid that was waiting for him by the library entrance.

Callista gently picked up the amulet and wrapped its chain around itself and placed it in a black velvet bag, sensing the overwhelming sadness Razor was feeling as he watched T-Bone walk off. "Meditate on it tonight Sir Razor, it's truly a wonder what a good nights rest will do for the mind."

Razor nodded his head, but his thoughts were somewhere else. Callista smiled gently as she studied Razor's face. "Your thoughts are preoccupied with my granddaughter." She stated knowingly.

Razor looked up at her in alarm, but he was unable to deny it due to the fact that he knew she could see right through him. With a graceful nod of her head, Callista motioned the remaining maid to leave. "Come with me Sir Razor."

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Several hours later…..at the gardens fountain………….

The coolness of the night proved to be soothing to Felina's frazzled nerves as she walked down the stone corridor that would lead her to the castle's gardens. Troubling thoughts of the night's events distracted her from the night's beauty that shown through the openings of the corridors balcony that looked down upon the garden's vibrant grounds.

A carved stone opening supported by ivy-clothed marble pillars opened a way down into the garden by a winding stairway of cracked, moss covered steps. She soon found herself walking on a simple path of cobble stones that weaved gracefully amidst the lush flowering plants and gnarled rose trees. As she walked along, she heard the faint gurgling of the immense marble fountain that adorned the middle of the garden. Its calming song seemed to lure her to it as she followed the gentle sound of running water.

As the fountain came into her sight, she saw the still figure of T-Bone, sitting on the stone bench across from the fountain, staring sadly at the graceful stone figures of the serene angels in flowing marble robes, seemingly frozen in a moment of time long past. The angels, their flawless features depicting a time of peace, glistened in the moons milky rays as clear sheets of water caressed their smooth bodies.

Felina studied his expression from where she stood, knowing that he hadn't yet noticed her presence. Still unsure of what to say, she slowly walked towards him. It was only until she was standing beside the bench that T-Bone looked over at her.

"What are you doing out here so late?" T-Bone asked quietly, returning his gaze over to the fountain.

Felina smiled as she sat down beside him. "I couldn't sleep. Why are you out here?"

"I couldn't sleep either." He replied blankly, his gaze still resting upon the fountain. A moments silence passed between them as they both watched glistening drops of water fall through the air back into the vibrantly tiled basin of the fountain.

"Do you want to talk about what happened tonight?" she asked, her tone soft.

T-Bone laughed quietly and shrugged. "There is nothing to say."

"There is plenty to say." Felina returned, her tone still gentle.

T-Bone turned his steady gaze over to her, his eyes an obvious indication of his inner turmoil. "There is nothing that I can say that hasn't already been said."

Felina smiled and shook her head. "I think you're aware that I can be just as stubborn as you are. By the time this conversation is over, you will tell me what is bothering you."

T-Bone couldn't help but smile. "Wouldn't your uncle have a seizure if he saw you sitting down here with me?"

Felina folded her legs underneath her and relaxed against the bench's back. "He'll never know."

T-Bone chuckled softly. "I wouldn't be too sure of that, your uncle has a tendency to show up in places you least expect him to. Believe me, I'm the voice of experience here."

Felina smiled. "Nice try, but we're not going to avoid the topic in question by wandering off on some other matter. So, I'm going to ask you again…What is bothering you?"

T-Bone shook his head, a faint smile still on his face. "Nothing is bothering me."

Felina breathed in deeply as she turned her gaze to the fountain also. "Despite the mask you're wearing, I can still read you like an open book."

He turned his head sharply in her direction, his eyes slitted in suspicion.

"There is a lot of tension between you and Razor most of the time nowadays."

T-Bone looked back at the fountain, not even bothering to give her a reply.

"And I know that it must be really hard for you two to live two different lives."

T-Bone stood up abruptly and turned to face her, his expression dark and indignant. "Who do you think you are…a shrink? You have NO right to assume things about our private lives." He growled.

Felina stood up as well, returning his irate expression challengingly. "Don't deny it; you know I'm right, you're just too proud to admit it."

T-Bone was now breathing heavily as he tried to fight his rising temper. But he wasn't mad at her, he was mad at everyone and everything that had made his and Razor's life full of disappointments and regrets. He was mad that no body actually knew about the life draining sacrifices they made every day of their lives, and how their deeds were most of the time unnoticed, unwanted, or unappreciated.

"You don't know anything, and you never will!" he growled, his voice shaking furiously. He turned sharply and started to stalk off the way Felina had come.

Felina watched him walk away, her expression one of a profound sadness. Before he was out of hearing range, she decided that now was a good time to tell him.

"I'm sorry about what my uncle did to you and Jake." She called out softly, so that only T-Bone could hear her.

T-Bone froze in mid step, not sure that he had heard Felina correctly. Felina could see the icy horror that was starting to well up inside of the tiger striped tomkat. Slowly, he turned back around to face her. "I know." She said quietly, and then with a nonchalant shrug she added. "I've known for a long time actually."

T-Bone was still slowly walking back up to her, their eyes locked in each others gaze. Soon, T-Bone was directly in front of her, his mask unable to hide the shock evident on his face.

"You've known?" he stated blankly, studying her face for any further clues. Felina nodded, somewhat guiltily. T-Bone switched his weight onto his other foot and folded his arms across his chest. "How did you…?" he stammered, his brow furrowed in disbelief under his mask.

"You two have never given yourselves enough credit…even when you two were the best pilots in the squadron." She smiled faintly.

T-Bone shook his head, looking off to the side of him with a disbelieving look still on his face. "Does you uncle know?" he whispered, hoping that their worst fear hadn't yet come true.

Felina shook her head. "No, just me."

"What are you planning to do with this information?" he asked gruffly, knowing that there had to be some strings attached.

Felina smiled softly. "I was hoping I could use it to convince you guys that you could trust me."

"Trust you huh?" he repeated to himself as he looked off to the side of them, pretending to study a rosebush.

Felina blinked furiously as she looked down at her feet, their conversation wasn't going the way she wanted it to. She looked back up at T-Bone, her eyes glistening as if she were trying to hold back tears. "I see…you don't trust me because I'm the niece of the tom kat that threw you two out of the enforcers."

"Now wait a minute, I didn't say that…" T-Bone protested, realizing his mistake.

"No, but you certainly implied it." She corrected him coldly as she took a step back away from him.

T-Bone was left standing speechless as she turned and started to walk away. Suddenly, she stopped and turned back towards him. "You never even noticed…that…that I was completely infatuated with you…did you?" Felina admonished, while quietly laughing at herself. "Even after you and Jake were kicked off the squadron…I still….I even hoped that…" she couldn't even finish her sentence because she started to laugh. She looked down at her feet again as she tried to find the words that would express the turmoil she was feeling. She looked back up at a shame faced T-Bone and shook her head. "When I found out who you two were…that…well… made me like you even more, and I admired your courage, your self sacrifice, and your ability to out fly every villain and enforcer that has taken to the skies. And what I admired most was the fact that you put everything that could of dragged you down to the side and moved on with your life to help those in need. But, apparently, you don't seem to care about that or me for that matter."

T-Bone just stared at her, surprised and embarrassed, as he fought to find the words that would make a good reply for her confession. But the words didn't come.

Felina looked him boldly in the eyes for what seemed like an eternity for the both of them. "Good night." She finally said before she turned and started to walk away again.

T-Bone was overwhelmed with the dreadful feeling of helplessness as he watched her walk off. "Felina!" he called after her, hoping that she would come back so that they could straighten everything out. But she kept walking, and he watched her retreating figure until she vanished from his sight, leaving him completely and utterly alone.

He was so caught up in his chaotic emotions that he didn't even notice the shadowed figure glaring down at him from the balcony above, its slitted golden eyes glowing eerily in the darkness of the night.


	10. Chapter 10

Hey Guys! Here's chapter 10! Like the previous chap, its not as long as i intended or wanted it to be but I didnt want to leave you guys hanging for months without anything. It bugs me as much as it bugs you! yes, it really does :P) Chap 11 will be coming soon, I have some of it written out already so it wont be that much longer...bout a week or so k? Well, i hope you enjoy it and I expect REVIEWS! lol BON APITITE! I think i spelt that right? lol

huggles

Etherweil

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Chapter 10

Feral watched T-Bone mentally beat himself up for his stupidity as he stood rooted to the spot Felina had left him.

Feral himself didn't know what to make of this valuable information he had just overheard. Ever since that day the Swat Kats had appeared, making him look like an incapable fool on live television, discovering their true identities and putting their tails in prison was the dream he relived over and over, and he had savored every moment of that daydream.

He shook his head and leaned against the balcony railing. The answer to it all had been directly under his nose this whole time, his two best pilots that he kicked off his squadron, Furlong and Clawson, were in fact the Swat Kats. He couldn't believe he didn't realize it earlier, it was so painfully obvious. But now, as he watched T-Bone sit back on the stone bench with his head in his paws, his dream of sweet revenge didn't seem all that satisfying anymore. Unconsciously, he had grown used to their aid…he was even thankful for it at times…even though you'd never hear him confess that to anyone. And now that Felina's emotions were now involved….

He massaged his temples wearily and closed his eyes. For the first time in his life, he didn't know where to go from this point…he didn't know what to do.

And then, a horrified scream shattered the still night air, its origin somewhere within the castle. Feral's previous thoughts were abruptly interrupted as he automatically ran through his room, out his door and down the corridor to were the scream seemed to came from.

T-Bone jumped to his feet immediately when he heard the scream and dashed off towards the castle, completely unware that Feral had been watching him.

Moments Earlier

Razor and Callista were slowly making their way along the ramparts that encircled the castle grounds. Callista held her paws clasped in front of her as she looked directly ahead, waiting patiently for Razor to give her a reply.

Razor was lost in deep thought as he slowly churned what Callista had said over and over in his mind.

Sensing his hesitation, she smiled as she looked over at him. "Some things are better left unsaid, but I entreat you to meditate on what I have told you tonight."

Razor nodded, still looking down at the stone walkway before him. Callista's smile slowly melted off her face as her steps became smaller. Razor stopped and looked back at her curiously. "What's wrong?"

Instead of answering him, she sharply turned her head back towards her castle behind them. "Something's not right." She informed him, her vibrant blue eyes a sparking fire. Callista then turned sharply and started to walk quickly back towards the castle, with Razor following immediately behind her.

When they were more than a couple yards away from the castle, they heard the terrified scream that had alerted the others. Callista, abandoning her royal air, broke into a run along with Razor into the castle.

At that same moment

"Abi." Felina breathed, as she heard the scream shatter the silence around her. She broke into a run into the rooming area they had been given to stay.

She burst through the corridor's doors and took a sharp right to where Abi's room was. As she was running down the corridor, with Abi's room only a few more feet away, her uncle emerged from the other corner opposite of her. Felina wrenched the door's handle down, pushed it open and rushed inside with her uncle close behind.

"Abi!" Felina called out frantically, when she saw the vacant room laid out before her.

Hurried footsteps echoed down the hall, and soon T-Bone rushed into the room and stood beside Feral. "She's gone." Feral growled unneedlessly as T-Bone closed his eyes and let his head drop to his chest.

Felina walked around the room, noticing the signs that there had been a struggle. Felina looked up, while her uncle and T-Bone turned around to see Callista and Razor enter the room.

Callista's eyes scan the room as she walks up to Felina. "I was afraid of this. Who ever took Dr. Simian was very proficient in the magical arts because they managed to break through the security barrier I placed on this room."

"But who?" Felina asked, looking over at her uncle and the Swat Kats.

"I'll give you one guess." Razor growled.

Felina's eyes grew wide as the image of the Pastmaster's accomplice appeared in her mind. "Crud. Why would they want Abi?"

"To get us to give them the amulet, I'd imagine." Feral spoke up.

Callista nodded.

"But why didn't we see one of Pasties time vortexes if he came here to abduct Abi?" T-Bone asked.

"A very good question Sir T-Bone. If you'd all follow me, I'll show you the answer to that question." Callista answered, as she walked past them all back into the massive hallway of the corridor.

In Queen Callista's castle tower………

Queen Callista let the amulet slip out of its soft leather bag into her waiting paw.

"Did you place a guardian spell over the amulet as well as our rooms?" Felina asked as she watched the queen walk up to a huge silver wrought mirror that was similar to that of the Pastmaster's in the cathedral library.

"Yes. Along with that I put a cloaking enchantment on it so they would not be able to detect its presence." Callista turned to face the four of them. "And, to answer Sir T-Bone's question regarding why we didn't detect one of the Pastmaster's time vortexes is because he traveled through his magic mirror that enables him to travel through time virtually undetected."

The four of them looked at each other. "Then how did he get back with Abi if his magic mirror is in the library of the cathedral?" Felina asked.

"Either the Pastmaster or his accomplice kept the time portal open so that one of them could abduct Abi and go back through the bedroom mirror." Callista explained.

"But how could they pass through into Abi's room from the mirror if you placed your spell on the whole room?" asked Razor, somewhat uncomfortable that the Pastmaster could travel through mirrors.

Callista shook her head. "That is what troubles me. As I said, whoever broke through my barrier is an even mightier magician than the Pastmaster."

The room grew silent. "Could it be his accomplice?" T-Bone asked, looking from Razor over to Callista.

"That very well could be." Answered the queen.

"But then why would this mighty sorcerer be taking orders from the Pastmaster when he could easily overpower him?" T-Bone asked, asking the thought they all shared.

Callista put the amulet on and then walked over to one of the huge bookcases that took up a good part of the tower's stone wall. "What did he look like?" she asked, as she scanned over the titles of the old dusty volumes.

"He wore this black cloak, dress thing that covered his face, and he had really white fur." T-Bone tried to describe the image of the ethereal sorcerer. "Why?"

Without answering him, Callista pulled a huge, stained, volume and brought over to her table. Without even blowing off the dust, she opened it and began leafing through its delicate pages quickly. They walked over to the end opposite of her and watched her flip through the pages. Suddenly, she stopped at a certain page that was elegantly embellished with perfectly written cursive writing and brightly colored illustrations. Yet, the illustration of this certain page was not by any means pleasant or breathtakingly beautiful. Instead, it was a rather disturbing scene that portrayed a blacked cloaked sorcerer with glowing scarlet eyes and snow white fur.

"Uncanny resemblance, reminds me of an albino ferret." T-Bone mused as he studied the image on the page.

Callista's eyes grew misty and her complexion pale as she looked over at her mirror. "This is very disturbing news indeed." She whispered faintly.

"What's wrong my Queen?" Razor asked worriedly as he walked over to her.

Callista cast her eyes back down to the sorcerer, whose drawn image with its glittering scarlet eyes cast a cold fear over the observer's heart. "That is Pagane, the evil brother of Caedmon the wise who made the covenant with the gods, and the eternal wielder of the amulet."

Felina groaned and leaned against the table while Feral just shook his head. "This just keeps getting better and better!" he snarled in anger.

Callista, her beautiful face now set hard with determination walked away from Razor's side and up to the mirror, and set her icy blue eyes intently on the mirrors surface. All they could see was her reflection, but the queen seemed to look past it and even deeper into the mirrors unknown mystical depths.

"Is something wrong my queen?" Razor finally broke the uneasy silence, and somewhat nervous by the blank, ghost like complexion that now made her face look like a porcelain dolls.

"In order for me to explain what you need to do and to take you where you need to go, you all need to put aside all resentment and anger you hold amongst yourselves and focus on the task at hand." Was her blunt reply, her voice sharp and brisk.

T-Bone stole a guilty glance in Felina's direction and watched her take in a sharp breath. Feral looked at T-Bone from the side, making T-Bone look over at him, and their gazes met, revealing to them both the secrets they had previously hidden deep within their hearts. T-Bone's stare was so intense that Feral had to look away over to Razor. Razor who had watched the whole thing tried to keep his complexion from turning pale.

"Is everything resolved?" they heard Callista inquire, breaking the icy atmosphere that had started to close tightly around them.

"I'm ready if you three are." Feral announced as he stepped forward behind the seemly entranced queen, taking Felina and the Swat Kats completely off guard.

"I'm ready too." Felina breathed, stepping alongside her uncle, while looking expectantly back at a stunned Razor and T-Bone.

T-Bone shrugged and stepped forward beside Felina and was immediately joined by Razor. "Let's do this." he stated, this time his voice dead serious.

"Good." Was Callista's simple reply. With that she slowly raised her paw infront of her. The mirror started to glow a vibrant white gold hue, and emitted from the palm of Callista's paw was a subtle breeze that made the mirror's surface ripple as if someone was breathing softly upon it. Callista then slowly put her hand through the hoary liquid and pushed through, and a blindly ray of golden light seared through, completely engulfing the queen from their sight.

Feral, without a second thought, followed pursuit and disappeared in a like manner, with Felina and T-Bone in close pursuit. Soon, Razor was by himself, standing infront of the mystic mirror. Slowly, he brought his paw up to the shimmery surface and gently touched it. It was refreshingly cool to the touch, yet his paw didn't feel wet even though it was now completely submerged in the mirrors liquefied silver contents. And then, taking a deep breath he pushed through, and in a blinding flash of light he disappeared into the mirror face. As soon as he was gone, the mirror's surface swirled back and transformed into its usual, hard reflective surface, and the room grew deathly silent, as if they had never been there at all.


	11. Chapter 11

Hey Guys! Chap 11 is here! If there are some errors I apologize, its just that I've started my job and I'm working full time so I wrote this at 12-2 in the wee hrs of the morning...Just to get it done for you guys! This fic only has a couple of chaps left. Chap 12 is almost done since most of it was going to be part of Chap 11 originally but I wanted to give you guys something. Its been over a month right? lol I apologize for that as well. And, due to the roughness of this chapter i implore you all to PM me if you have any corrections or suggestions of how I can improve this chap. I would like to hear from you. Thank you again for your patience and I hope you enjoy this. Until Chap 12! ;D

Etherweil

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Even though his eyes were closed, he could feel the warm sunlight soak into him as he stumbled forward. He slowly opened his eyes and saw a beautiful clearing of lush grass, blooming flowers, and huge moss covered weeping willows that hung over him like a delicate canopy of green and tiny white blossoms. A gentle breeze teased the limp branches, sending a white shower down on him, yet its unseen body didn't carry a sound. This was the first thing that struck him as odd in that little clearing in the middle of the forest; not a sound broke the silence that hung in the air like an invisible curtain that could smother you if you breathed in too deep.

The breeze returned and wisped playfully around his tense body, making the fur on the back of his neck prickle. He stepped back a little ways and instead of stepping in sand he splashed into water. He turned around quickly and stopped, his eyes wide in surprise. There in front of him, was a perfect circular pool, its seemingly infinite waters a deep hue similar to that of a flawless sapphire. He could see himself, his body tense and his chest heaving arduously, as clearly as if he was looking in mirror.

An eerie feeling came over him as he looked past his image into the depths of the pool, and that feeling escalated into a bitter dread until he finally tore his eyes away from its enchanting beauty.

He heard a footstep behind him, and he whirled around into a fighting stance, only to see that it was T-Bone, looking at him curiously.

"Woah! It's just me buddy." He held up his hands in alarm, an uneasy smile on his face.

Razor somewhat relaxed and walked up closer to his friend. "Where is everyone?" As if to answer his question, Feral and Felina walked out from among the trees, and were followed closely by Callista.

"Where are we?" he asked, trying to hide the fact that he was a little spooked out.

"We are standing on sacred ground; this whole area should be familiar to all of you." Callista spoke calmly, as if they were on a stroll in the middle of some peaceful picnic area.

"I'm sorry but I don't remember this place." Felina grumbled as she squeezed herself with her folded arms that were placed firmly across her chest.

Razor looked around him, trying to find something that might bring back some recollection of his supposed previous visit. The ancient weeping willow that shaded the pool caught his eye for some unknown reason, and he stepped past T-Bone towards its moss covered trunk. He studied its aged, wrinkled bark carefully and let his gaze slowly descend upon its gnarled roots that furrowed out of the earth into tangled masses that snaked across the mossy forest floor. He knelt down by the base of the trunk and let his paw run down its rough skin. Underneath the moss he felt what seemed to be the abrupt curves of some kind of handwriting, and with some forceful strokes he rubbed the moss off the trunk. His eyes grew wide as he studied the indecipherable lettering that scarred the willow's trunk and he leaped up away from the trees base.

"What is it?" T-Bone asked, a little worried at Razor's strange behavior. He watched as his friend walked in a small circle around himself, silently counting to himself the number of weeping willows that encircled the pool area. "This is that ancient graveyard that the cathedral's going to be built on." He murmured, looking at Callista in alarm.

Callista nodded approvingly. "Yes, it is. This area will not be cleared for another 400 years."

"Why did you bring us here?" T-Bone asked, confused.

"I will send you back to your time from here. But first, I am going to tell you about who you are up against."

"About Pagane?" Felina asked.

Queen Callista nodded. "Yes. Seat yourself upon the grass for it is a long account."

Razor looked behind him at the base of the willow were some deceased saint lay in eternal slumber.

"We are not disturbing their sleep; we are not of malice and greedy temperament. Only those of hateful spirit will experience the wrath of these holy saints." Callista consoled, sensing their hesitation for sitting upon the grass.

The four of them slowly sat down and tried to put their minds at ease. Callista gracefully knelt down in front of them and let the fuchsia skirt of her dress lay out on the grass like the petals of a fully blossomed rose.

Clasping her hands and placing them gently in her lap she looked at them intently. "As you all know, Caedmon was the young warrior who approached the gods and helped them bring about the covenant that is held within the stone of this amulet. Caedmon was appointed as the wielder of the amulet and he became a mighty, yet good, sorcerer who maintained peace throughout the then known world. However, his twin brother, Pagane, grew jealous of Caedmon's exulted position and power and became skilled in the dark arts.

As Pagane's heart grew vindictive and his soul blackened by his hate, he was completely consumed by the corrupting powers of the dark arts, and he became the most feared dark magician throughout the land. He eventually attacked his brother's kingdom with his army that he had called forth from the underworld in attempt to seize the amulet for himself, for he planned to open the gates to ethereal realm of the sleeping gods to unleash untold destruction and chaos upon katkind. Caedmon, however, knew of his brother's plans and prepared himself for the sacrifice that had to be made to protect the amulet and to banish his brother into the underworld along with his army. And Caedmon did just so, giving his life in the process of banishing Pagane for all eternity."

Callista stopped and looked over at the enchanted pool beside him. "Although banished from the living world, Pagane's dark presence continued to lurk upon the face of the earth, drawing to him lost souls that became his followers. They soon gained enough powers to enchant mirrors and bodies of water to serve as portals from which Pagane could see and hear into the mortal world."

Razor glanced over at the pool suspiciously after hearing Callista say this.

"Yes, the pool beside us was such a portal," Callista read Razor's thoughts as she saw him look over at the pool. "However, the guardian's of the amulet sacrificed themselves and gave their spirits to this spot to prevent Pagane's gaze from tainting this area with his wicked aura. They are the saints that are buried here in a perfect circle; a symbol that every guardian from every nation of the ancient world rests here in unity to fulfill one dignified purpose. There are areas such as this all over the world, but many of them, such as this one will be in 400 years, are and will be destroyed by the advancements of katkind."

"So, the reason why Pagane was able to come back is because the spells made by these saints were broken by their burial sites being destroyed throughout the centuries." Felina stated as she looked around that the enchanted piece of earth they were sitting on.

"Well, partially." Callista replied, catching the gaze of her four listeners. "These gaps in Caedmon's banishment spell allowed Pagane to slowly retrieve his previous power and enabled him to manipulate the weak minded to do his bidding. Someone just recently released Pagane from his imprisonment."

Feral, Felina, T-Bone and Razor all looked at each other knowingly. "The Pastmaster." They stated in perfect unison. T-Bone shook his head, "That little troll has no clue whatsoever." He growled, remembering past experiences were the Pastmaster's own devious plans had backfired on himself.

"So Pagane is controlling the Pastmaster?" Feral asked as he looked over at the queen.

The queen sighed. "No. Pagane has made the Pastmaster believe that he is the one in control. Pagane needed the Pastmaster's ability of time travel and so he deceived the Pastmaster into thinking that what Pagane suggested was what he needed for his plans to be completed, when, in fact, Pagane is the one controlling him as would a puppet master with his puppet. Pagane, once he is through using the Pastmaster's abilities, will rid himself of him."

Callista then slowly stood up, and the four of them quickly followed. Callista walked over to the edge of the pool and slipped her feet in the shallow water of its shore. She then removed the amulet from her neck and held it above the pool.

A distant, yet peaceful chant that had spell bounded Razor in the castle library seemed to vibrate loudly through the still branches of the trees and the earth seemingly shook underneath their feet as if the saints trembled in their sleep fitfully at the foot of the encircled willows.

They grouped together as the harmonious chant grew louder and seemed to crash down around them. They watched in awe as the amulet's opal started to glow its icy sapphire hue, and its silver body grew white and as pure as the blinding glory of the sun, yet it did not burn the hand in which it was being held.

The glossy pool surface grew blurry as its seemingly bottomless depths began to churn in unison with the opal's swirling surface of shimmering frost. And then, as if painted by an invisible hand, an image of the cathedral appeared on the pools surface. Then, as suddenly as it had materialized, the image was pushed and mixed by an unforeseen force, and the clearing where the Turbokat and the helicopters rested by the lake appeared.

"Step forward, for it is time for you to go back to your time and to stop Pagane once and for all." Callista announced, as she slowly lowered her hand that held the amulet. They all walked up alongside her and looked down at the familiar image the pool revealed.

"Remember, the only thing that can destroy Pagane is the amulet and the only thing that can destroy the amulet is itself. You cannot let the amulet fall into the hands of Pagane or all will be lost. You must not fail."

Callista's harsh, urgent words were icy and sharp as they sank into their minds. Callista looked over at Razor and smiled at him gently. She turned to face him and slowly raised her hands over his head and placed the amulet around his neck. Razor looked up at her in shock, and before he could protest she held up her hand in anticipation of it.

"You all must work together; your thoughts and actions must be one, for that is the only chance you have of defeating Pagane. If you stick together, you will not fail. Now hold each others hands and step into the pool." She directed. They all slowly held each other's hands and stepped forward until the pools water reached their ankles.

"Now, take a deep breath and jump in to the middle of the pool simultaneously. Do not struggle for you will be on the shore of the lake in only a few fleeting moments. I send with you all with my love and faith; just remember what is at stake and all will go well. Farewell and Godspeed my warriors."

"Alright, on the count of three..." Felina announced, squeezing both her uncle's and T-Bone's hand in hers. "…one…two….three!" They all jumped in at the cue and slipped into the pool.

The cold water pushed against them with alarming pressure as they drifted further into the pools unfathomable depths. Complete darkness fell upon them like a black blanket as the air seemed to be squeezed painstakingly from their lungs as the pressure grew more intense as the seconds slowly passed. They gripped each other's hands tightly as their chests grew tight from lack of air as they continued to fall through a complete void of black nothingness, their bodies squeezed and pulled in some unknown direction that seemed to demand their lives…

…and then…the black void that held them in its suffocating cocoon lifted suddenly, leaving them lying on the damp sandy shore of the lake, gasping in the refreshing night air.

"Thank God! We're back!" Feral gasped as he unsteadily stood up. Razor squeezed the rough sand in his shaking hand as he slowly got onto his knees, still breathing in deeply.

"Do you think we need to call in backup before we proceed to the cathedral?" Felina inquired rather breathlessly as she tried to stop her body from shaking.

"No, we don't have time to wait for reinforcements." Razor spoke firmly, looking up at Felina through tired eyes.

"We can't stand up to Pagane alone Swat Kat." Feral stated incredulously.

T-Bone, sharing the same urgency as his partner, looked at the two enforcers. "Then we'll go on ahead to the cathedral while you go call your backup."

"We're going to pass the helicopters anyway, so we can call for backup on our way." Felina argued.

"Fine. You guys can go ahead and do that, but we're not waiting for your men to come and ruin our element of surprise…that is if he doesn't know we're here already." Razor growled, standing up.

Feral's eyes narrowed. He knew time was running out. "Fine."

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Razor felt the cold silver body of the amulet through his t-shirt underneath his flightsuit as the four of them stood hidden by the dense forest surrounding the cathedral.

As the four of them lay concealed in the shrubbery, Razor found himself drifting off into thoughts that were not his own. His heart began to beat rapidly as the amulet started to grow warm underneath the cover of his flight suit, as if it were anticipating the touch of the one who, for so long, had longed to have it in his possession. As he lay there, staring at the library window that glowed a golden hue like an eye staring into the night, he slowly began to realize that the fleeting heartbeat that pounded within his head was not the beating of his heart, but of someone else's. His mouth grew dry as it dawned on him….Callie….

A violent, chilly wind suddenly whipped through the trees, making them bend in silent agony as leaves were ripped from their branches savagely. The Swat Kats, Feral and Felina crouched lower to the ground as they watched the doors of the cathedral burst open, slamming against the marble walls of the threshold with a thunderous 'boom' that was even louder than the howling wind that gradually began to cease. A hoary mist emerged from within the cathedral and crawled down upon the marble steps and poured out thickly onto the ground as would dark storm clouds rolling out across an angered sky.

"There is no need for you to be hiding, for I sensed your presence on this mountain before either of you could gather your breath from your journey." A calm, yet sinister voice spoke to them upon the invisible body of the breeze, making chills run down their spines.

"Pagane." T-Bone growled, his eyes narrowing. If the wizard had heard the menacing utterance, his voice didn't betray his awareness of it. "You have something of mine and I have some things of yours…I do believe a compromise can be reached to satisfy both of our desires…that is if you are of willing spirit." The voice continued, its tone sweet and sickenly sincere.

The amulet grew warm against Razor's chest as the voice spoke. The blanket of mist that now covered a good portion of the land before the cathedral was starting to snake its way towards the woods, where they lay waiting. "The terms of our compromise can be discussed further in the comfort of my dwelling. I swear upon my honor that you and your friends will not be harmed." Razor eyes were slanted in distrust.

"Never would I, in my nine lives, put trust in your honor. If you are so keen as to come to an agreement, then why are you not out here talking to us face to face?" Feral snapped, his eyes scanning the landscape before him in search of Pagane.

A menacing cackle rippled through the bitter air. "So be it. I do not need your cooperation to get what I want and I do not want to waste any more time on you pathetic mortals. You see, the amulet will be mine, and there is nothing you can do to stop me!"

The fog leaped at them like a living thing and swallowed them within its fleecy, vaporous jaw, temporarily obstructing their sight. They struggled blindly against the fog, waving their hands in front of their faces in attempt to clear it from their sight. Slowly, the fog gradually began to rise from the ground as if someone was pulling it up from the heavens like a curtain. Soon, T-Bone, Feral and Felina could see each other, and they immediately realized that Razor wasn't in their midst.

"Razor!" T-Bone yelled, as he looked around him, hoping to see the outline of his friend. They looked towards the cathedral to see its immense front doors slowly starting to close. T-Bone, knowing that Razor was somehow abducted by Pagane, tore off towards them.

"T-Bone stop!" Felina cried, chasing after him.

"Felina wait!" Feral yelled, unable to catch up to his niece and T-Bone who were now bounding up the cathedral's front steps. T-Bone jumped through the almost closed doors and was followed immediately by Felina, who landed beside him on the lobby floor.

"Felin…" the doors shut with a resounding 'boom', abruptly cutting off her uncle's cry.

"Well, Well. So you decided to come after all." They heard the wizards voice comment with a lazy air. "Looks like I'll have to provide some entertainment for you after all." T-Bone and Felina jump to their feet and race towards the library. Its doors lay open, sending a golden streak of warm light into the dark corridor like a beacon leading them to their desired destination.

As they ran towards it, they could see the end of an immense stone table decorated with intricate carvings along its side that depicted the renowned tale of the amulets origin. And, lying at the foot of the table was an unconscious Razor and a restrained Abi, her eyes wide with untold fright.

Just as it seemed that they were going to make it through into the library, something came hurtling from within the library, knocking them both flat on their backs. The library doors slammed shut as soon as they hit the floor as if slammed shut by a giant hand. Pagane's malicious laugh echoed deafeningly throughout the darkened corridor. Felina and T-Bone struggle onto their feet, pushing off a restrained Pastmaster from their laps.

"Nice try. I must say your persistence is heartwarming, but I have different plans for you two, so I'm sorry to say that you're going to be too busy to help your friends. But, just to be fair, I've allowed a friend of yours to assist you…but whether he's of help to you without his puny watch has yet to be seen."

T-Bone growled furiously as he starts to fire missile upon missile at the library's unyielding doors. Felina could do nothing but watch helplessly as Pagane's taunting laugh grew louder. "Save your weapons mortal, you're going to need them!"

"Just wait till I get my hands on you!" T-Bone screamed at the doors with an intense hatred in his fiery green eyes.

"I won't hold my breath." Came Pagane's cold reply.

"Oh my god." Felina gasped, as she looks back to where they had come. T-Bone looks back to see the same mystic mist that had abducted Razor completely consume the threshold to the main lobby with its churning hoary mass. Sinister shadows crept along within the silver, vaporous body slyly and unnerving shrieks of hideous nightmarish creatures shattered the pungent atmosphere of the enchanted cathedral.

Felina and T-Bone took a step back towards the library doors as the fog like substance increased in stature and churned and rumbled like an incensed storm cloud. As the mist started to die away upon a nonexistent breeze, the horrific figures of otherworldly creatures of pure wickedness became unnervingly clear in the dark corridor.

T-Bone glared at the underworld soldiers that responded to Pagane's summon, and he raised his glovatrix in ready. "We're trapped." Was all he could say, his voice unnervingly grim.

Just a friendly reminder: PLEASE R&R! LOL thanx for reading :P


	12. Chapter 12

And here it is finally...CHAPTER 12! Its kindof short but it is, never the less, the climax of this fic. I hope you enjoy it and I assure you that Chapter 13 and 14...the conclusion of this fic will be posted promptly too. ENJOY! I look forward to your reviews:D

Etherweil

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Chapter 12

His eyes flickered open slightly as his sense of feeling slowly returned to his numb body. He could feel the coldness of the stone floor on his back as he lay there in silent pain with the room blurry and spinning in front of him. His hand instinctively felt for the amulet underneath his shirt, and was alarmed to find that it wasn't there. Despite the stinging protests of his aching head and body he sat up, trying to clear his vision.

"Ah, so you've decided to join us in the world of the living." He heard a voice purr above him. Razor looked up into the unnerving, glowing scarlet eyes of Pagane, who was now wearing the amulet with a triumphant smirk on his face. The gloating sorcerer walked away from Razor and over to where the stone table was, and tied to it was a battered Calico Briggs.

"Despite your best efforts Swat Kat," Pagane spat out the name with distaste as he unsheathed a magnificent sword from its gilded casing, "I now have the amulet and the key to the gates to the realm of the gods. The moment that I have dreamt of for countless centuries is now close at hand and you shall be the first to witness the coming of a new era!"

Razor slowly got to his feet and leaned against the wall for much needed support. "Do you know what calamity will befall katkind if you awaken the gods?" he demanded, his voice hard and resentful.

A wicked grin wrinkled Pagane's timeless, snow white face. "Why yes. That is the whole point my dear knight. You see, my brother tricked the gods into making that accursed covenant. And, it is I, their devoted servant, who shall set them free from their imprisonment. Everything shall be set aright, and the balance of the universe shall be restored."

Pagane brandished the sword into the air, and its flawless silver blade encrypted with the elegant language of the gods glistened in the faint candlelight. He looked over at Razor, who was trying to stand on his feet without the assistance of the wall.

"You overestimate yourself Swat Kat. I have drained you of your life sustaining energy, and overexerting yourself could, in fact, kill you."

Callie turned her head onto its side and looked at Razor with her blue eyes that were glistening with unshed tears. Razor's amber eyes were now lit with an internal fire spurred on by a seething wrath. He let go of the wall and stood there, his stance now steady and his fists clenched and shaking.

Pagane began to mutter the unintelligible language as he positioned the swords glistening blade over Callie's fleeting heart. "I promise you, she shall not suffer…for long." He began to cackle as the amulet began to glow a shade brighter than any blue known, further enhancing Pagane's possessed features.

The sorcerer screamed out the final verse of the spell prepared himself for the killing blow. When the tip of the blade was about to plunge into Callie's still chest, Razor leaped through the air, his claws extended and his teeth bared in a blinding rage. Pagane, not expecting such a violent attack from his weakened foe, stepped to the side and slashed Razor's side with the sharp sword. Razor landed in a readied crouch, not even noticing the gash in his side that was now bleeding profusely.

Pagane, his sharp teeth bared maliciously, raised the sword above his head. "Now you shall die!" he hissed.

"You first!" Razor screamed, dodging the sword's blade that was aimed for his head. Razor grabbed Pagane's wrists and pushed the sword towards the sorcerer's torso with his remaining strength. The sword pierced Pagane straight through with a sickening sound, and Pagane screeched out in pain and fury.

"Did you think you could kill me that easily?" Pagane sneered as he grabbed the amulet and aimed its glowing stone directly at a stunned Razor. The blinding flash erupted from the amulets core, sending Razor crashing into the magical mirror placed against the wall. The mirror shattered with the impact, and Razor slid to the ground, grimacing in intolerable agony.

He looked up at Pagane through misty, yet lucid ocher eyes that were still aflame with a keen hatred. Pagane sneered at the dying kat in front of him. He withdrew the sword from within him and tossed it to the floor, its blade dripping scarlet. He picked up the amulet from his chest and held it towards Razor.

"I must admit, I underestimated your abilities Swat Kat. You remind me a lot of my brother, strong willed and difficult right on up to the end." Pagane's was now standing over Razor. "I am curious to see the face of the mortal who has given me so much grief."

In a swift motion, Pagane shot out his paw and ripped off Razor's mask, making the red and blue helmet skid across the library stone floor into Abi's bound feet. Gasps of profound shock came from both she kats when they saw Jake's defeated face.

"Ah, how touching! The jealous mechanic is your knight in shining armor." Pagane sneered, looking over at a shocked Callie. "Well then, it's only fitting that you shall watch him die." Pagane smiled at her.

"NNOOOOOOOOOOO!" Callie screamed at the top of her lungs as she struggled against her bonds. "DON'T YOU DARE TOUCH HIM!"

Jake felt an intense feeling of shame, knowing that he was going to die. He had failed and he was going to be destroyed in front of Callie. He struggled not to give in to his remorse and self pity as looked into Pagane's smug, triumphant face. The amulet was as bright as a lustrous star in the heavens, and it was aimed directly for Jake's racing heart.

_"The only thing powerful enough to destroy it is itself…" _Callista's voice echoed in his head as he stared at the amulet. His eyes grew wide as he felt the shards of broken glass underneath him. He glanced over at a particularly big piece of jagged mirror only a couple inches away.

A deep cackle rumbled in Pagane's throat as he looked at his helpless victim before him. "Rest in peace Swat Kat." He grinned.

Before Pagane could mutter the single word that would unleash the amulet's killing blow, Abi, who had managed to untie herself from her bonds, threw herself onto Pagane's back, wrapping her arms around his neck.

Pagane, with an enraged shriek, tossed Abi from his back and sent her flying into the opposite wall with bone crushing impact, and she fell onto the floor in a broken heap.

Pagane screamed out the death abiding command, his face misshaped and ugly with fury. The amulet sent forth its blinding death ray at its master's command. The satisfied look that occupied Pagane's face disappeared abruptly when he saw a fleeting flash of light come from Jake's paws. His scarlet eyes grew wide in terror as Jake held up the part of the mirror to intercept the amulet's ray.

"NNNNOOOOOOOOOOOOO!" Pagane screamed as the amulet's ray hit the jagged reflective surface and shot back towards itself, piercing itself directly in its luminous stone posed directly over Pagane's chest. The amulet grew white and its luminous opal glowed in likeliness of the sun's surface. Pagane's agonized shriek pierced the room, making Jake cover his ears with his gashed and bloody paws. Before them, Pagane convulsed and shrieked, his red eyes rolling back into his head as his body grew skinnier and older looking. Callie turned her head away from the sight of the sorcerer's fur and flesh melting off his trembling bones like hot, dripping plastic. The sorcerer's stripped skeleton, which was still shrieking, crumbled onto the floor as it gradually turned into dust, and the scorching amulet with its cracked opal lay devastated in the filmy heap of gray dust.

Jake's eyes met Callie's glistening, sapphire eyes that were brimming with tears that were coursing down her cheeks onto the stone table. "That was a little disconcerting." Jake chuckled faintly as he leaned against the wall in exhaustion, with a pool of his own blood encircling him like a crimson lake.

"No you incompetent fool! You kill them by beheading them!" The Pastmaster shrieked, jumping up and down on his butt while he watched T-Bone and Felina fight off their overwhelming foe.

"SHUT UP OR I'LL SHUT YOUR PIEHOLE FOR YOU!" T-Bone shrieked at the Pastmaster. "Didn't I tell you not to remove his gag?" He yelled over the sound of their screeching enemy.

Felina ducked from a swinging sword and grabbed its hilt, twisted it from the creatures grasp and beheaded it with its stolen weapon. "Don't you dare reprimand me! He told us how to kill them in case you've forgotten!" she hissed back.

T-Bone beheaded a creature with the last of his octopus missiles. "We would have figured it out sooner or later!" he growled, tripping another creature and grabbing its sword that flew back up into the air as it landed face first onto the floor. T-Bone then cut of the creatures head before it could get back up, and its headless corpse shriveled up into a pile of gray dust.

Felina launched herself at a creature, lashing out at its head with her glistening sword with a vicious savagery. "And how long would that of taken us!" she shot back as she was slowly pressed back by the advancing creatures that were pushing the both of them into the middle of the circle they were forming.

T-Bone felt her stumble into the back of him, and he knew that they were now completely surrounded by the seemingly never ending creature army.

"Crud." He growled as he watched the creatures sneer at them, their dead, black eyes glistening with malicious intent as they licked their blades with their black, serpent like tongues.

Felina readied her sword as she tried to stare down her enemy. "It was nice knowing you T-Bone." She stated, trying to keep her voice flat and emotionless. She felt him sigh as he also raised his sword. "Before we're chopped to oblivion, I just want to say something. "He said, his tone sincere.

"Well, you'd better hurry; I don't think they'll give us much time to say our goodbyes."

T-Bone gripped the handle of his sword tightly in his shaking paws. "I just want to say that I'm sorry and that I never meant to hurt you and that…..that is the last thing I'd ever want to do to you."

Felina couldn't help but smile as she listened to him struggle for the right words.

"And if I ever had the chance I would ask you out in a heartbeat." He finished abruptly, hoping that what he had just said wouldn't provoke any further hatred.

Felina's smile grew bigger as she felt her heart skip a beat at hearing his words. "And if you ever had that chance I would say yes before you could even finish asking me." She whispered loudly enough for him to hear.

T-Bone's dare devilish grin appeared on his face. "Let's give these guys hell."

They both lashed out at the creatures, beheading several in just one swipe of their swords. The creatures shrieked and launched upon the two kats unrelentlessly. As the creatures pushed further upon them, T-Bone and Felina started to receive deep cuts and gashes from the razor sharp blades that whirled around them with thunderous clashing of steel against steel.

Felina after several moments of frantic sword fighting received a crippling blow to her shoulder that made her cry out in pain. Another creature slashed out unmercifully at her thigh and shin, making her fall to her knees in defeat. Before the creature could finish her off, T-Bone whirled around and beheaded the creatures.

He stood over her protectively and continued to fight off the creatures that were now falling upon them in full force. Right as T-Bone envisioned their inevitable defeat and death, a deafening explosion shook the cathedral.

The creatures stopped their attack and looked towards the main lobby in bafflement. The thunderous 'boom' that followed immediately was the main doors falling from the smoking hinges onto the marble entry floor, allowing a massive force of well armed enforcers to swarm in and take defensive positions.

Feral followed directly after his force with a bazooka of his own perched on his shoulder. "FIRE!" he barked, and a volley of ammunition fell upon the shocked hellish army. The creatures shrieked as the fiery ammunition exploded around them and they charged at their newly arrived enemy.

"AIM FOR THEIR HEADS!" T-Bone screamed over the deafening sound of battle.

Feral couldn't see or hear T-Bone over the exploding bazookas of his force. T-Bone just shook his head while he bent down and gathered a dizzy Felina in his arms.

"Hold on." He whispered gently to her while he set her safely against the wall.

"Let me go and I'll help you!" the Pastmaster shrieked, still jumping up and down on his tail in irritation.

T-Bone just glared at him. "Yeah right! Your staying right were you are you little troll." He growled. The Pastmaster gibbered on in exasperated anger. "You foolish mortal! You're all going to die without me…….without me you're all just…..mmmmmmmppppphhhhhhhh!" T-Bone grinned evilly as he stuffed another gag in the little sorcerer's mouth.

Ignoring the growling Pastmaster, he then knelt down in front of Felina and started to rip off fabric from his pant legs and proceeded to tie them tightly on her bleeding gashes.

"W-where are you g-going?" she stuttered as she fought to stay conscious as she watched him stand up and grab his sword. "I'm going to go help you uncle, just rest and I'll be right back." He brushed some matted hair away from her unfocused eyes.

"B-b-b-be c-c-careful." She muttered as she barely felt the warmth of his hand against her face. She watched him turn and run off into the battle through half closed eyes. Blackness started to envelop her vision and as soon as she was unable to fight it, she gave in and her head dropped towards her chest as she passed out from blood loss.

As Jake slowly undid her bonds with shaking paws, she couldn't help but look searchingly into his face.

"Razor….Jake…" She began weakly as he worked on the last bond on her wrist. He looked at her sadly. "I-I'm so s-sorry Callie." he stuttered weakly. And then without warning, his knees buckled underneath him and he collapsed onto the ground.

"Jake!" despite her injuries she jumped down from the table down to his side. He was breathing laboriously as he lay there, leaning against the base of the stone table with his arm placed over his side. Callie slowly pulled away his paw away from his blood soaked side to examine his grievous side wound.

"Oh my God." She breathed, her voice shaking as she pulled her paw away from his side, her blonde fur drenched in his blood.

The creatures numbers were quickly diminishing as Feral and his squadron figured out what actually killed their unearthly foe.

Feral had his bazooka aimed for an advancing creature that had its sword brandished over its head in anticipation of bringing it down upon the Commander's head. Before Feral could pull the trigger, a silver blade sliced across the creature's neck, and the perplexed jackal like mummy evaporated into a pile of dust right in front of him. Feral looked up from the pile of dust to see a battle worn T-Bone standing there with a gleaming sword in his bloody paw.

"Were is Felina?" Feral demanded harshly, trying to hide the fear in his voice.

T-Bone was about to tell him about Felina, but a piercing, bloodcurdling shriek lashed out into the air resoundingly.

"That's coming from the library." T-Bone yelled over the earsplitting shriek to Feral who was struggling not to cover his ears.

The creatures of the hellish army froze at the sound of the scream and they in turn started to wail and fall to their knees in agony. One by one, each creature exploded into gray clouds of dust as if an invisible had been shot through the air to strike it down. The pained scream grew louder and more intense in velocity as the whole cathedral seemed to tremble at the sound of the dying being somewhere within its walls.

T-Bone looked back at Feral, his eyes sparking with urgency. "Get a paramedic in here and follow me!"

The seriousness T-Bone displayed struck down all the doubt and orneriness in Feral's manner. He turned to his enforcers. "One of you go fetch a paramedic! The rest of you follow me!"

Feral and his enforcers ran after T-Bone towards the library. As they approached, they saw T-Bone reach down and pick up some shredded rope bonds and a tattered cloth gag that had been discarded on the floor. But Feral didn't pay attention to the fact that the Pastmaster had once again escaped, rather he ran and knelt down beside his unconscious niece.

"WHERES THE PARAMEDIC!" He screamed at his enforcers as he gathered Felina up in his arms and cradled her lovingly, and he didn't look up at T-Bone as he knelt down beside Feral.

The sound of hurried footsteps approached the group and a paramedic pushed through the on looking enforcers. Although T-Bone was worried about Felina, he was also worried about Razor who was still behind the Library doors where that disturbing scream had come from moments before. He picked up the bazooka that Feral and discarded and walked up to the library doors. Yet, he waited patiently for Feral to assist the paramedics in putting Felina on a cot and he watched sadly as she was rushed out of the cathedral.

Feral then walked up to him, his eyes bloodshot and red. "Pagane and Razor are in there along with Miss Briggs and Dr. Simian." T-Bone informed Feral. Feral grabbed another bazooka from one of his enforcer's and stood beside the Swat Kat and switched off the safety latch.

Jake gritted his teeth as Callie tightened a piece of cloth around his gashed torso. "How's Abi?" he breathed as he pushed himself farther up against the table base. Callie shook her head as she slowly stood up. "I think she's received several broken bones along with a severe concussion."

He felt himself choke up as he watched her pick up his helmet with a shaking paw. She stared down at it, as if she was still in shock. "Callie…." He began as he struggled back onto his feet and leaned unsteadily against the table. "….I……I didn't know how to tell you……….I would of……I was going to but………well……."

Callie looked back over at him sadly. "But what?" she whispered shakily.

They both looked over at the library's locked doors as someone pounded on them. "RAZOR!" T-Bone's muffled voice cried out from the other side.

Jake closed his eyes and sighed as T-Bone continued to bang against the door. He knew for sure that the time he and Chance dared not speak of had actually come….the Swat Kats had fought their last battle.

It scared Callie to see that look of defeat on Jake's usual strong, smiling face. Callie walked over to where Pagane had ripped off Razor's mask and picked up the black scarf from amongst the glass shards.

He watched her curiously as she continued to shake it off and straightened it in her paws as she walked up to him. Without saying a word, she placed the scarf over his eyes and tied it for him, helping him to become Razor once again. She then placed his helmet in his paws and looked right up into his tired, drained eyes.

"It doesn't matter what or who you are…because you'll always be a hero."


	13. Chapter 13

Hey guys! Here's chapter 13 as promised...Chapter 14 is, believe it or not, already written and all I need to do is add some things here and there to fix it up so I'll be posting that in a day or so. I hope you guys like this chapter...It was kindof difficult to write due to the confrontations that take place here so let me know if there is any area i can work on to make it better...I'm always open for corrections/opinions. Till Chapter 14 (which is the last chapter of this fic! Yes! I am excited:D )

Enjoy!

Etherweil

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Razor was fading quickly and the piece of cloth Callie had tied across his wound was now soaked with blood. Callie gently coaxed him to sit back down and to rest against the stone table's base. "You need medical attention now." She stated, trying to keep her increasing fear for his life out of her voice as much as possible.

Razor shook his head. "I'll be fine." He murmured, his eyes growing heavy from blood loss and weariness.

She caressed his cheek with a shaking paw. "I'll be right back okay? I'm just going to go let T-Bone in. I want you to try to stay awake okay?" she choked as she felt tears stinging in her eyes.

Razor smiled faintly as he looked at her through half closed eyes. "Don't cry." He whispered as he managed to wipe away a shed tear from her cheek with one of his paws. She grasped his paw in hers as the tears began to flow freely.

Despite the numbness that was beginning to take over his body, he felt a sharp pang of sadness as he watched her cry. Soon, the tears that dampened his paw were no longer felt as his eyelids grew increasingly heavy, and the pain soon melted away along with his body heat like some soothing tide of weariness and sleep that claimed him at last.

The library doors burst open with a thunderous explosion and a thick cloud of smoke billowed forth from the other side. T-Bone ran through the smoke and into the room, his bazooka raised in ready for a fight. But, the sight of blood that covered the floor made him drop his smoking weapon unconsciously. His mouth grew dry with fear as the sound of someone sobbing came to his attention. He walked over to the other side of the stone table to where the blood stained the floor in an unnervingly large crimson puddle. The burly tom's heart literally stopped when he saw Callie cradling his limp and barely breathing partner in her arms.

Several Days Later……

MegaKat Memorial Hospital…..

Distant, yet familiar sounds of conversation and ringing phones filled her head as she slowly came to. She shifted uncomfortably in the stiff cotton sheets that rubbed roughly against her bare skin and breathed in deeply as she prepared herself as she slowly opened her eyes. At first, everything was blurry and undistinguishable but after a few, slow, steady blinks everything came into focus. She was in a whitewashed hospital room that was illuminated by the bright, warm rays of the rising sun. Many vases of bright, fragrant flowers and roses lined the room and dominated the shelves along with a seemingly countless number of 'Get Well' or 'Feel Better Soon' cards that were pinned on the walls or perched against the vases.

As she slowly took in the sight of the room she heard a relieved chuckle come from the other side of her bed. "Good morning Sunshine! I was worried you were never going to wake up." Callie turned her head stiffly to face a smiling Abi who was sitting in one of the bedside chairs.

Callie smiled faintly so as not to make her bruised face throb even more. "You wouldn't happen to have any chapstick on you would ya?" she croaked.

Abi's smile grew wider. "I just knew you were going to say that." She chuckled as she handed Callie a stick of chapstick with her free paw. "Now, in return of my dutiful services, you have to sign my arm cast."

Callie smiled gently as she slowly applied the chapstick to her dry, chapped lips. Abi grabbed a small cup of water and exchanged it for the chapstick. Callie drank the water slowly and savored the feeling of her dry throat being quenched by the cool, refreshing liquid. After finishing the cup she laid back down and tried to get comfortable.

"How's everyone?" she asked finally.

Abi nodded. "Oh they're good. Felina's recovering fast despite all the blood she lost and from those stitches she had to get. She'll be up and around in no time."

Callie smiled at Abi's comment about Felina, it was good to hear that she was still herself. Her smile disappeared though as she began thinking about Jake and how he was more dead than alive when she last saw him.

Abi noticed the abrupt change in Callie's expression and knew who she was thinking about. "Your wondering how Razor is huh?" she asked softly.

Callie broke her gaze with the ceiling and looked Abi directly in the eyes. "Have you heard anything about his condition?" she asked, almost breathless as she feared the worst.

Abi shook her head. "None of us have heard anything." she sighed in regret, still shaking her head. "I don't remember anything past the time when Pagane threw me into the wall."

Callie looked back up at the ceiling, her expression revealing her worry. "God, I hope he's okay."

Chance woke up in an uncomfortable position in the chair he had fell asleep in by Jake's bedside. He yawned and groaned at the same time as he carefully stretched to bring his sore, strained muscles back to life.

"Good morning my boy." He heard a voice say from the doorway.

"Morning Professor." Chance yawned as he slowly got to his feet.

Hackle just shook his head as slowly made his way over to Jake's bed. "I know that it must be very uncomfortable to sleep in that chair, especially for a tom of your size."

Chance shrugged as he pulled the chair closer to Jake's bed and sat down in it again. "It's not that bad Professor." He lied. "Besides, I want to be here when Jake wakes up."

Hackle looked Jake over. "Well, I wouldn't be expecting him to be waking up for another couple of days Chance. I've put him in a medically induced coma so his body can start replacing all that lost blood. He needs all the sleep he can get."

Chance's ears drooped slightly. "But he's going to be okay right?"

Hackle chuckled. "He's quite a fighter, and that's what makes the difference. Yes Chance, he's going to be himself in no time. But for now, I suggest you go home and get some real rest yourself so your wounds can heal as well."

Chance nodded as he rubbed the back of his neck. "Okay." He mumbled as he looked at Jake worriedly. He let Professor Hackle lead him out of Jakes room. "Are you up to flying or do you need me to give you a ride home?" Hackle asked as he watched Chance slip on his flight suit.

"I'm fine Professor." T-Bone replied as he put his helmet on.

Hackle nodded. "Alright then, fly safe. I'll contact you if there is any change."

"Thank you Professor." T-Bone shook the Professors hand in gratitude. He then turned to the back door that led out to the immense back yard where the Turbokat was concealed by a huge tarp. As T-Bone was about to turn the doorknob, he looked back at Hackle. "And I just want to apologize for just showing up on your doorstep like that that night and for just shoving our secret on you. You'll never know how much we both appreciate your help."

Hackle smiled. "There is no need for you apologizing son, for we all need help sooner or later, no matter who we are. It has been a pleasure assisting you and I can assure you that your secret is safe with me. Now go on home! No more dilly dallying!"

T-Bone smiled as Hackle gently shooed him out of the house and out towards the Turbokat.

Hackle watched as the Turbokat lifted off with a mighty roar into the air and screamed off towards the city skyline until he could no longer see it against the bright rays of the morning sun. "Just because you two are special doesn't mean that you have to be alone in this world."

the hangar…

T-Bone jumped out of the Turbokat and walked up to his locker. His helmet and bandana were the first to come off, and after he had peeled off his flight suit, he realized that it was too far gone to be saved. He grumbled as he rolled his tattered and bloodied suit into a ball and threw it into the trash. He then walked up to the stairs that led up to the living room, turned off the hangar lights, and then slowly climbed up the stairs.

He was expecting a rather sunny living room once he had opened the trap door, but when he pushed the door open and let it fall softly onto the carpeted floor, the living room, along with the kitchen, garage, and hallway were dark.

Chance cautiously pulled himself onto his feet and slowly stood up as he looked around him in alarm. He didn't remember pulling every blind and curtain in the house shut. A cold shiver ran down his spine as he came to the realization that someone was watching him close by, and as he slowly turned his head toward their armchair he saw a pair of slitted, golden eyes burning in his direction.

"Hhhmmmm, just when we everyone was beginning to fear the worst, you finally show up." A deep voice that was all too familiar rumbled.

"What are you talking about?" Chance growled back, his temper short.

A lamp snapped on with a resounding click that echoed throughout the room's uneasy atmosphere. Even though he already knew who was sitting there, Chance's heart still fluttered when he saw that it was Commander Feral sitting in one of their armchairs.

"You know what I'm talking about Furlong." Feral sighed wearily. "Don't forget that I was the one who helped you get Jake from the cathedral to your jet. He was in really bad shape and I was just wondering how he was doing since you didn't bring him in to the hospital."

Chance laughed mockingly as he glared at Feral. "Did you really expect me to bring him to the hospital?"

Feral shrugged. "Why not? I already know you're alias' so you had nothing to loose."

Chance shook his head in disbelief. "Nothing to loose huh?" he spat back. "To tell you the truth Feral, I have my whole life to loose. And the reason behind you wanting me to bring in Jake to the hospital was because it would've given you the perfect opportunity to arrest us on live television."

Feral nodded. "Yes, it would seem that it would be the perfect opportunity for me, but it really wouldn't. You see, if the public found out that the Swat Kats were indeed the two pilots I kicked off my squadron several years ago and that you had turned an old MWW II bunker into your hangar underneath my own junkyard wouldn't exactly be the best publicity for my career or my reputation. You see, I would loose my respect and trust from the citizens of MegaKat City if I brought you guys in because of the fondness this city has for you two"

"Don't tell me that the reason why you haven't brought us in is because of our popularity." Chance growled as he folded his arms across his chest.

"I am not the monster you and Clawson have made me out to be these past couple of years. If I remember correctly, we used to tolerate each other."

Chance's patience snapped. "Just tell me what you want Feral! I'm not going to let you play head games with me!" he snarled as he continued to glare at Feral.

The commander shook his head. "Your temper hasn't changed in the least, that's for sure. Just sit down here on the couch so we can discuss this whole situation like a pair of mature adults." Feral shot back, his tone biting.

"I'd rather stand thank you." Chance growled.

Feral got to his feet and walked over to Chance, his face hard set and grim. "Alright, since I can see that you're not in civil mood I'll just lay down the cold hard facts."

"Knock yourself out."

Feral breathed in deeply. "For starters, despite the good you and Clawson have done, you two have broken countless laws that can land your tails in Alkatraz in a heartbeat, and you two have made me look like an incompetent fool on live television so I wouldn't be mouthing off if you valued your freedom Furlong."

Chance forced himself to bite his tongue, but the glint in his emerald eyes told Feral that he was still ready to fight back.

"And, if I brought you two down, my career along with yours would be in the litterbox so I think a compromise is in order."

Chance looked at Feral in shock. "Are you telling me you want to strike a bargain with us?" he stated in disbelief.

"If you want to put it in those exact words…yes." Feral mumbled.

Chance just stared at Feral as he gently shook his head. A sneer appeared on the tabby's face as he started to laugh. "I can't believe you think I'm that stupid." Chance laughed in Feral's red face. "I'd rather make a deal with Dark Kat than I would you."

"You forget yourself Furlong, those are smart words coming from your wanted mouth." Feral snarled.

"Like I give a care! Arrest me now and get it over with, we both know its what you really want to do!" Chance raised his voice several decibels as he glared challengingly into Feral's hard eyes.

Chance expected Feral to snap back at him with an equal, if not greater amount of temper, but instead Feral just stood there infront of him with his paws clenched and shaking. When the commander finally spoke, his shaking tone made Chance, deep down, regret what he had said.

"Instead of helping you get Clawson to the jet, I could of arrested you while you were weak and could've left Clawson there to die……he was already on the brink of death so why do you think I even bothered?" Feral walked up closer to Chance so that they were now face to face. "Hell, I could have even brought the media and my entire squadron here for your arrest…but I didn't. I've had a hunch as to who you two could be ever since the first day you showed your faces in your spunky little outfits and if I had followed that hunch and pursued my own self interest, I could of arrested you guys a long time ago, and I could've smashed your faces in the dirt in front of the whole city and I could've thrown your tails in Alkatraz for the rest of your nine lives without chance of parole…..but I didn't and do you want to know why?"

The room had grown deathly silent as Feral and Chance continued to stare at each other with flaming, angry eyes.

"You'll never know why Furlong." Feral hissed, "Because your too stubborn to let go of your grudges and to see past the mistakes others have done to you. And those grudges, Furlong, will come back and bite you in the tail someday, and nobody will be around to help you."

Feral then turned away from a speechless Chance and walked over to the main door. Before he stepped out the door, he paused and looked back at Chance who was still rooted to the spot where he had left him. "Don't make the mistake thinking that I am doing any of this for you or for Clawson. Even though I'm letting you two off for now, you had better watch yourselves because if you step out of boundary, I swear to God, I'll come down on you two with full force and there will be no place on this earth where you can hide from me."

And then, with a harsh slamming of the door, Feral was gone and Chance was left alone to be with the mind pricking fragments of their conversation that promised to haunt him.


	14. Chapter 14

2 weeks later……..

Early evening the salvage yard……

Chance looked over at Jake with concern written all over his face. "Maybe you should call it a day buddy." He suggested as he slammed the hood of the car they had finished working on shut.

Jake shook his head as he grabbed some paperwork. "No Chance, I'm just fine."

"The Professor said you shouldn't work all that hard for another couple of months." Chance persisted.

"I said I was fine Chance. After I look over this other car I'll turn in for the night."

Chance sighed in defeat, there was never any use arguing with Jake. They continued to work in silence as the minutes slowly dragged by. Chance put away the tool box and grabbed the truck keys from their hanger. "Well, one of us should go get those car parts for the William's car tomorrow. Do you want to go or should I go?"

Jake shrugged. "You go, I don't really feel like driving tonight."

Chance grabbed his jacket from the coat hanger and opened the shop door. "I'll switch the signs okay?" he said as he flipped the Open side to the Closed side on the front of their door.

"Alright." Jake called back as he stuck his head underneath another car hood.

Chance jumped into the wrecker's cab, turned the ignition on, and drove off towards the junkyard exit. He was so preoccupied with his thoughts that he didn't notice a green sedan sitting in their lot facing the garage entrance.

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The radio played a mellow tune as Jake continued to work on the broken down car. He unconsciously hummed along with it and was so focused on the problem at hand, he didn't even hear the shop door open slightly then shut quietly.

Several minutes passed while he worked away on the engine before he got the uneasy feeling that he was being watched, and from the corner of his eye he saw a blurry, yet slender figure in jeans and a sweatshirt. He looked over to see Callie standing there looking at him with her arms crossed and a faint smile playing on her lips.

Jake suddenly became aware of his dirty appearance as he fought to find the right words.

"Hello Jake." Callie greeted him, her voice soft and gentle.

"Hi Callie." He replied nervously as he wiped off his oily paws on a shop rag. "What can I do for you?"

Callie smiled. "Well, you can tell me how you're doing for starters."

"I'm doing good." he nodded, as if trying to convince himself of that.

"That's good." Callie laughed nervously. "That's good because…umm…well…I haven't exactly heard from you to see how you've been doing. For all I could've known, you could've died." she fought to keep her voice from shaking as she looked down at her feet.

Jake couldn't help but wince to see her uncomfortable. "I didn't want to…you know…"

Callie looked up at him, her sapphire eyes flashing. "You didn't want to what?" she asked rather harshly.

"I didn't want to interrupt…..no, I mean get in the way….I knew you had a lot to take care of business wise."

"You wouldn't have gotten in my way Jake; in fact, hearing from you would've saved me from a lot of stress and worry."

"You didn't have to worry about me." Jake sighed in frustration.

"I didn't have to worry? Are you kidding me? You were actually bleeding to death in my arms…..you were practically dead when Chance, I mean T-Bone and Feral, took you away from me!" Callie cried out indignantly.

"And I'm sorry you had to see me that way!" Jake returned just as exasperated.

"I don't want you to be sorry Jake, All I want you to do is tell me why!"

"Tell you what!"

"I want you to tell me why you avoided me for all that time…why you never even took the time to seek me out or even call me………..I want to know why you never told me who you really were!"

"I didn't know how to tell you Callie! I wanted you to know who I really, was but then again I just wanted you to forget about me and to move on!" Jake yelled out in frustration.

The garage grew deathly silent as they stood there, with Callie staring at him in disbelief. "Why did you want me to forget you?" she breathed, her voice shaking hurtfully.

Jake sighed. "Look at me Callie. I'm not the kind of tom you want to end up with. I'm just some washed up enforcer who ended up being a mechanic who happens to live another life as a vigilante because he cannot stand the thought of being a complete failure for the rest of his life. You deserve better Callie, and I want you to have everything this world has to offer, and I cannot offer anything worth while to you. You don't deserve to be dragged down to this kind of life." Jake felt his ears droop as he looked directly into Callie's glossy blue eyes. "That's why." He mumbled, suddenly ashamed of himself.

Callie just stared at him, sadness painfully evident in her eyes. "Jake…"she choked as she walked up closer to him. Before he knew what was happening, Callie cupped his face in her hands and pulled him down to her and started to gently kiss him. Jake soon found himself kissing her back, and her arms were wrapped around his neck while his paws were now resting on the small of her back.

Slowly, they pulled away from each other so only their noses were touching. "Like I told you before Jake….it doesn't matter what you are, it's who you are….and you are and always will be a hero."

Jake smiled at her appreciatively and without any further words said, he bent down and kissed her again, a kiss which she returned passionately.

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1 hour later on Highway 180…

The highway was seemingly desolate…a fact which further encouraged the tabby's annoyance and disregard for the speed limit, and so enabled him to ignore the current speed he was traveling without a hint of guilt on his conscious. His right foot was rested comfortably on the gas pedal while his right paw was rested at 12 o'clock on the wheel as he let his truck carry him away down the winding gray highway that ran through the outskirts of the city.

However, the remorse that haunted his being was not of his present law breaking, but of thoughtless words that just seemed to bring him down further in the world. He didn't want to give up the anger that was continuously boiling in his soul; it was his main source of motivation that seemed to get him through everything. But at the same time, he knew deep down, that this anger that permitted him do so much, also prohibited him from doing things as well, from doing things that were meaningful and worthwhile; it also prevented things from being forgiven and resolved. But what bothered him the most was that he knew Feral was right, and that he was the one being reasonable and mature…instead of it being the other way around.

He growled as he gripped the wheel tighter in his paw…he hated reality sometimes. Flashing lights suddenly danced in his rear view mirror in the vibrant colors of red and blue while a whining siren pierced into the trucks cab like some howling ghoul. Chance gritted his teeth as he glanced down at the speedometer…he had been caught doing 95 miles per hour. He cursed silently under his breath as he put his foot on the break and slowed down enough to pull over to the side of the road and park.

He drummed his fingers on the wheel as he watched the enforcer step out of the squad car and swanter up alongside his truck. He cursed some more as he grabbed his wallet out from his pants pocket and rolled down his window. He heard the enforcer's footsteps crunch in the loose gravel before they came to a stop by his door and so he turned his head towards his open window but was blinded by the enforcer's flashlight beam that was aimed directly in his face.

"Will you please step out of your car." A gruff, commanding voice instructed him.

Taken aback, Chance opened his door and stepped out of his truck as directed, with his hand held protectively over his eyes.

"What's with the flashlight in my face?" he growled, a little irritated that he couldn't see the enforcer who had pulled him over.

He heard the enforcer give a brisk laugh, and the gruff tone instantly turned into a feminine purr. "I don't know, maybe I think your cute when you squint."

"What? Who in the he…" Chance began indignantly, but the enforcer shut off the flashlight and Chance immediately saw that the enforcer was, in fact, a her.

"F-Felina." He stammered, a little shocked.

Felina shook her head at him with a smile on her face. "Are you aware Furlong that you were doing 30 miles OVER the speed limit?"

"Uuuhhh…." Chance scratched his head as he took a quick glimpse of his truck behind him before he looked back at her with innocent grin on his face. "…No, I didn't."

Felina folded her arms across her chest and pursed her lips in mock irritation. "Really? Why is it that I don't believe you?"

"Probably because you know better." Chance laughed, still not believing that she actually pulled him over.

"Don't try to sweet talk yourself out of this one Furlong….that's one massive ticket and I need to fill my quota for this month." Felina reprimanded him.

"Your quota? Aren't you supposed to still be on leave?"

"You know me; I don't stay down for long." Felina beamed as she pulled out her ticket book.

Chance winced as she flipped it open and clicked open her pen. "Funny. I should've seen this coming." He sighed as he looked off down the road.

"Really? How so?" she asked with a bored tone as she started to fill out the ticket slip.

"I ticked you and your Uncle off." Chance growled as he watched her paw move rapidly across the paper.

"Ain't that the truth." She sighed as finished writing up the slip and tore it from the pad.

She looked up at him with a teasing smile on her face as she held out the ticket for him to take.

He rolled his eyes as he took it from her. As he quickly scanned the contents of the ticket, he realized that it wasn't any normal ticket slip. Instead of stating the amount he owed, written in its small space in perfect handwriting was:

**_Pick me up my house Friday 7;00 pm sharp Don't be late or else._**

_**Love,**_

_**Lina**_

Felina smiled in satisfaction at Chance's shocked expression. When he finally looked at her, she took a step closer, stood on her tiptoes and kissed him. After a couple seconds she pulled back with a mischievous smirk playing on her lips, and before he could recover, she turned and walked away towards her patrol car with a flirtatious stride. Before she stepped into her car, she leaned over the top of her door and shouted. "Give Jake a big huge for me!" And with that, she got in, turned off her lights, and drove off.

Chance stood there and watched her drive off, his ticket slip still clenched in his paw until her taillights vanished into the bend of the road. He shook his head, trying to make sense of what just happened and then read the ticket a couple more times. Slowly, his trademark grin appeared on his face as he walked back over to his truck and got in. The truck roared to life and with the screeching of spinning tires, he was cruising down the road again, and over the roar of the exhilarating engine anyone walking alongside the road could hear a triumphant "WWWWWHHHHHHHHOOOOOOOOHHHHHHHHOOOOOOOOOOOOO!"

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Meanwhile….at the desolate ruins of the St. Michael's Cathedral.

The painted sky stretched out and became one with the horizon, disappearing as if being swallowed by the flaming ginger sun as it melted into the fathomless water colored ocean. Bright golden rays that seemed to explode forth from the vanishing point of the sinking star reached out across the forlorn Katmai mountainside, chasing away the falling twilight for spare, yet brief moments.

A hushed lullaby of bittersweet hymns carried upon the gentle breeze caressed the swaying branches of the bowing and sighing trees. The cathedral, a pale ghost of all things past stood proud and erect amidst the swaying trees, its sun bleached surface sprinkled with drops of golden, yet cold sunlight. The magic was gone from within its stone walls, and time, once again, started to take a hold of the gothic building that was once invincible from its tainting touch. As the sun set further, undistinguishable silhouettes slowly came out from their retreats and once again stalked the cracked walls and dust covered floor.

However, the cathedral wasn't completely deprived of life…that is if you'd call a time defying sorcerer as a living thing. The tiny, undead sorcerer stood in the ruins of the library with his dusty watch clenched in his shaking skeletal paw. "Never again shall I call upon my fellow magicians for assistance again!" he swore to himself as he kicked fitfully at a pile of gray dust before him. After his anger subsided, he brought his watch up to his face and wiped its surface with his purple velvet cloak. His bony jaw slowly wrenched up into a sneer as he stared at himself in the reflection of his watches face. His one good eye gleamed maliciously as he started to cackle. "Next time the Swat Kats and their queen will not get away from me!"

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And so it ends……….for now. :D

I just wanted to leave you, my dear readers, a heartfelt thank you for sticking with me while I ever so slowly wrote and posted this fic. God, after looking back over all I wrote it appears as if I've written a book! LITERALLY! Slaps self in the head, fainting simultaneously

The story that will follow after this will, I promise you, pick up about a month or so after where a "Kat's Eye' ends so you'll not be left in the dark for long……..geez doesn't that sound familiar to ya! Lol Till the-fic-that-for-now-goes-unnamed, chapter 1 is posted:D

Etherweil

P.S……..Jovi: I promise, a showdown between Feral and Chance will occur in fic #3 when Feral finds out that Chance and his niece are dating…..at this particular point in time they haven't really gone out on their first date and Feral now doesn't think Chance has the nerve to take Felina out……..haha yeah right:D


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